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CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
KNC.USII COLLECTION
THE GIFT OF
JAMES MORGAN HART
PKOFKSSOK OF KNCUSII
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
r
2| lo6crn ^anguatjo (Association
of CDhio.
nVtt j m l fg * ^ r r
it—
£• hi. /irrt^K. ~ *■ —
papers ^eab
at tl?c
Ctnnual meetings.
1894 anb |895.
Papers Pead
ai the
Fiftt) and Sixth Annual Conventions
of the
Modern Language Association
* Of Ohio ♦
Held at Ohio Wesleyan University, ©elauiare
JUfje 26 ai?d 27, 1894
and at
Sandusky, July 2 ai)d 3, 1895.
Published by the association.
»*rc Vil-. hk.- Br...,,
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Contents.
PAOE
President’s Address 5
ERNST A. EGGERS.
A Uniform Pronunciation of German 9
JOSEPH KRUG.
Methods with Beginners in French and German 27
WILLIS A. CHAMBERLIN.
College Rhetoric 39
JOSEPH V. DENNEY.
English in Ohio Colleges 63
EDWARD M. BROWN.
Adverb Idioms in German 67
WILLIAM A. COOPER.
The Use of Etymology in the Teaching of German 76
CHARLES W. MESLOH.
Das Nibelungenlied 86
SARAH A. WORCESTER.
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Tfte Officers of tl>e Association
for 1895*96 are:
Joseph Krug President
Central High School, Cleveland.
E. M. Brown First Vice President
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati.
Josephine Johnson Second Vice President
Otterbein University, Westerville.
Ernst A. Eggers,
Ohio State University, Columbus.
Secretary
George F. McKibben, Treasurer
Denison University, Granville.
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
President's flddress.
Ladies and Gentlemen :
It gives me great pleasure to open the sixth meeting of
the Modem Language Association of Ohio, which will hold
its sessions to-day and to-morrow.
Any society which has led a more or less vigorous life
for several years, may well pause for a moment as it is
about to turn its sixth milestone, and by throwing a glance
backward attempt to realize what it has done, and also what
it has failed to do.
Somewhat more than six years ago this Association
was founded. Its first president was Prof. James Morgan
Hart, of the University of Cincinnati, whose name has a
more than familiar sound. We all regretted to lose him
when he was called to a larger field of usefulness at Cornell
University. His eminent services as a teacher and scholar
have recently been recognized by his being elected presi-
dent of the Modem Language Association of America.
Under the leadership of this distinguished scholar this
Association began its work. Its object — as formulated by
its founders — was to expand and strengthen the study of
Modern Languages, to bring all people engaged in teach-
ing Modem Languages, or interested in them, into closer
communion, and especially to create more cordial rela-
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
6
tions, a more hearty co-operation between Modem Lan-
guage teachers, both in high schools and colleges.
From the very first it was the distinct plan of its found-
ers to guard even against the appearance of disloyalty to
the larger Association, as many of our members, and all of
the founders of this Association were active members of
the Modem Language Association of America. Not sec-
tionalism, not a desire to disunite, but a profound convic-
tion that certain local or State questions could only be
answered by a State Association, prompted the founders
of this Society to proceed as they did.
Their first ventures were tentative and their principal
aim in the beginning was to secure recognition upon the
program of the Ohio College Association for subjects per-
taining to the study and teaching of Modem Languages.
Up to that time but little, if any, attention had been paid to
these subjects. Some excellent papers were given before
the Ohio College Association, and these were subsequently
published in full at the expense of the Modem Language
Association. Separate meetings were also held, at which
informal discussions of important subjects were carried on.
As soon as the Association began to feel that it had
secured a firmer hold upon the attention of the teachers of
the State, a separate program was secured and carried out.
This was done at the last two meetings, the fourth and fifth,
and this will again be done at our present gathering.
Words of commendation for the papers offered at these
meetings have come to us from many people, even outside
of our own State, and we may all congratulate ourselves
upon having placed the Association upon a sound basis.
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
7
Much has been done, but could not a great deal more be
done? Undoubtedly. There is one point — and I should
like to emphasize this above all others — in which this Asso-
ciation has signally failed to carry out its plans, and that is
the establishing of more intimate relations between the
high schools and colleges. The percentage of high school
teachers in our membership is absurdly small. It shall not
be my purpose to inquire who is to blame for this, but I
should like to urge upon the members of this body the de-
sirability of some vigorous steps to bring all the teachers
of the high schools into our fold, and in addition, perhaps,
also to urge some of our brethren in the colleges, whose
institutions are not yet represented, to join us in our work.
An Association like this can do its work only if the majority,
and a large majority, of the men and women with whose
work it concerns itself can be persuaded to join its ranks.
I hope that this Association will not adjourn without hav-
ing appointed a special committee whose business it shall
be to solicit new members. We may well learn from the
example of the teachers in other branches. There seems
to be no difficulty to secure a hearty co-operation among
the teachers of science. The enthusiastic meeting of In-
structors in Ancient Languages, held at Ann Arbor,
March 27 and 28. under the auspices of the Michigan
Schoolmasters’ Club, which, by the way, is one of the
healthiest, most flourishing, and most thoroughly alive
bodies of teachers I have ever known, shows that our
friends on the other side are bestirring themselves. Shall
we lag behind?
The instruction in Modern Languages in Ohio high
schools and colleges is not what it ought to be. In col-
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
leges it rarely rises above what would be expected in a
well-appointed high school, and in the high schools it does
not go beyond what w'ould be done in a fairly well-con-
ducted grammar school.
We must raise the grade of the instruction all along the
line. We must all do this, and in order to accomplish this,
we must co-operate through some organization like the
Modem Language Association of Ohio.
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
fl Uniform Pronunciation .of German-
By Joseph Krug.
The study of the German language is surrounded by
difficulties which are not met with in the same number or
degree in the mastery of other tongues. Many of these
impediments are of an idiomatic nature, and therefore, are
characteristic of the language. Others are inherent in
nearly all languages, especially those of Teutonic origin.
The acquisition of English, for instance, is in some respects
very simple and easy; in others exceedingly difficult. Of
all the languages which I have studied, I found English pos-
sessed of the simplest and easiest inflection, of the most
regular and transparent construction; in fine, of the least
complex and most comprehensible grammar. The gram-
matical difficulties of French are far more numerous than
those of English; its pronunciation, however, is much more
readily learned than the pronunciation of the English
tongue. Thus the obstacles pleasantly relieve each other,
and it becomes possible for persons of even moderate lin-
guistic ability to master either of these two languages.
It seems to be a peculiarity of German that it unites in
itself all possible difficulties, and that in a high degree. Its
grammar, etymology, and construction are more manifold,
richer, and more intricate, and therefore involve more labor
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
10
to students than the corresponding grammatical features
of either French or English. The number of German syn-
onyms as well as idioms is almost unlimited; the forms of
the German script is strange and perplexing; the ortho-
graphy is very vague and in countless cases even illogical.
In spelling, chaos reigns supreme. In almost every State
of Germany is now recognized a different orthography, not
taking in the official orthography of German in Austria.
The officially approved spelling books contain varying rules
in the several States. Thus a student who has the dubious
fortune of being transferred from a Bavarian or Austrian
to a Prussian school — or vice versa — must in each begin
anew his study of spelling. The same is true in regard to
pronunciation. Indeed we possess — thanks to the Lutheran
Bible — a written compendium of High German which has
attained during an existence of four hundred years a high
degree of perfection, as well in its logical as in its grammat-
ical structure. The short-comings of this written language
are in the lack of a common and generally acknowledged
orthography and a uniform and universally recognized pro-
nunciation. Both of these deficiencies are to be counted
among the difficulties mentioned above which confront
the student of the German Language.
In North-Germany, Low German (commonly known as
"Platt Deutfdj”) was the spoken and the only written lan-
guage up to the time of the Reformation. The all-powerful
Hansa towns corresponded in this dialect with the kings of
the Northern Seas. It is generally known that one of these
princes, Waldemar III., wrote his historical letter, now
famous chiefly for its sarcasm, to the seventy-seven towns
of the Hanseatic League in Low German. To-day, the
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
II
philologist meets with the same dialect in numerous old
parchments. I may cite as examples of this the text of the
“Dance of Death,” to be found in the Marienkirche at
Luebeck, and an inscription in the bridal-room of the Town
Hall in the same city, some old law books, historical docu-
ments, tombstones, etc.
The tribes of southern Germany lived in an elevated
mountain region and their dialect became manifest in ever
so many literary documents. This division of German being
spoken in the Highlands, took from this circumstance its
name, High German in distinction from the Low German,
which w'as the language of the Low- Lands. They differ
intrinsically, and each was capable of separate development.
The Reformation placed High German in the ascendency,
especially since it had become the legal and official lan-
guage of the princely court at Meissen, Saxony. The
so-called Meissener Bureau Language (Hteiffcner ttanjlct*
Spracfye ) became eventually the sole medium of higher intel-
lectual intercourse in the north of Germany, w r here it was
assisted by the authority and influence of the Bible over
Church, school and social life of man. The almost uncon-
scious, but none the less powerful, tendency of the German
people toward political union and uniform national exist-
ence may also have been a strong factor in bringing about
this result.
For the German himself, his German Language has
always been and always will be a precious jewel, whether
he live in the dear old Fatherland, or abroad. For us
teachers of German, it is a great and important duty to
transmit this language in its genuine purity to every pupil
entrusted to our care, whether such a pupil be of German or
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
12
of non-German parentage. This is the reason too, why in
some of our great cities (Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee,
etc.) so much time is spent upon it. The lower or primary
grades of the public schools of these cities invest more time
in its study than in any other one of the regular school
curriculum. Teacher and pupil apply themselves to diligent
work, to the perusal of a more than abundant literature of
text-books upon language — an application which requires
■enormous industry and perseverance. This would hardly be
necessary if our written language were in truth the mother-
tongue of our youth — if the child had only heard and
spoken it and could bring it to the school room as an
acquired treasure. In fact, the written High German has
been heard at the cradle of but a few of our German chil-
•dren. Thcv received it onlv in its fundamental tones, mixed
9 W 9
with the sounds of dialects which, in the school room, would
give but a false melody. This is especially the case in regard
to children of parents from southern Germany. The asser-
tion may sound paradoxical, but it is true, nevertheless,
that the dialects of southern Germany are too closely allied
to the written High German to produce satisfactory results
in the study of the language. Involuntarily and uncon-
sciously the child will intermingle the dialectical speech with
A
the words of the purer written language. The close relation-
ship destroys the barriers and renders the work of the
teacher a very difficult and ungrateful one.
It is evident that in schools in which instruction is given
in German nothing but the purest High German must be
spoken : further, that the natural method of learning a lan-
guage is by hearing, imitating and speaking it, just as chil-
dren practice it with their mothers. The question, therefore,
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
13
is how to apply these theories to practical work in our school
rooms, despite all the difficulties which surround us. It may
be claimed that the language used in school, which in char-
ity we will call the pure written language, offers no equiva-
lent of influence to the dialect of the home and still less to
the overwhelming power of the English language. These
two, it may be said, form a double current, the other an
artificial dam, easily overflown and readily destroyed.
None the less, I believe it as settled long ago that only
the unadulterated High German should be spoken to the
pupils. In the schools of the German fatherland this re-
quirement is fulfilled by daily practice. For the teacher of
German in America, it is a question of vital importance. It
seems to me that two other questions are involved in it.
They are, First: Which pronunciation should be taught
in the school room? and, Second: In what manner or by
which method should it be inculcated?
It is the object of this paper to answer the first of these
two questions. I say without hesitation that it is our duty
as teachers of the German language to teach the generally
recognized pronunciation of the North German stage. The
language of the drama, as pronounced upon the stages of
North Germany, must and will become the universal Ger-
man. I anticipate protests against this proposition and
hope to answer them completely. Some will say, “You
can not take his dialect from any person.” But let us
hear what Professor Paul has to say upon this point in
his book " priitcipten \t
f LTjdvsCsdiiddc ” — “The com-
1 • .
mon language is a new idiom to w'hich the dialect must
surrender. This is true in regard to the written language '
in the strict meaning of the term, as well as in its verbal
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
14
application. Every well educated person will no doubt
gladly sacrifice his dialect for the acquisition of the pure
High German. Certainly no one would think of reading
a letter or a journal in the dialect to which he is accus-
tomed, even within the family circle. Does it not require
the unadulterated self-conceit of a son of Berlin to use in
conversation with others than his townsmen the strictly
dialectical and homely forms of ‘nee,’ *ood>,’ ‘feene,’ for
the High German ‘nein,’ ‘aud>,’ and ‘feinc,*? The writ-
ten language is unconsciously used in such a contingency,
and as the written language is no dialect its pronunciation
can not be of the dialect kind.”
Thus Professor Paul. “But,” will be further objected,
‘that will happen rarely, if ever, in the school room. Teach-
ers will naturally avoid such objectionable provincialisms.
And what is the harm if the High German, as spoken in
the class room, shows a slight tinge of dialect? May there
not be a slight shading of the Westphalian, the Swabian, or
the Rhenish accent in the pronunciation of the teacher?”
But how, permit me to ask, if the student, advancing
from grade to grade, hears in each a different pronuncia-
tion of the same word from different teachers? What good
is wrought by that kind of teaching? One word may serve
as an example. Shall the child learn to pronounce “Koc.
ttif,” or “tfoe'ittcf,” or •‘Kee*nif,” or u X{ee•nid) , ’ ?
“Well,” will be the next objection, “what necessity ex-
ists for uniformity in matters so trifling? Why so much re-
striction in the spoken language?” My answer is: It is
true that not even in Germany all shoes are fitted to one
and the same last. A well-defined conformity is, however,
necessary. Equal rights are asked for all citizens — a uni-
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
1 5
form monetary system, a common regulation of weights
and measures are for the benefit of all; even the general
military service is considered as pertaining to uniform jus-
tice. Why should not a uniform pronunciation of our High
German likewise prevail? We must strive for a perfect
phonetic system if we wish to elevate the German in our
schools above the wrangle of mere schematists, and we
must unite upon a few' rules of orthography. Room enough
will still remain for the individual, local, or provincial into-
nation, articulation, and deliverance of speech.
A further objection: By what authority does the school
claim the right to a future standard of pronunciation, not
generally acknowledged, and advocated only by its inter-
preters?
In answering this question, I take the liberty of intro-
ducing Professor Hildebrand, who says, in an article in
I)r. Sanders’ fur bic Deutfcbe Spracfyc : “We
recommend no artificial production of sounds that may
have originated within the brains of philiological theorists,
but that standard pronunciation of German used on the
stage in the serious drama. This pronunciation is the re-
sult of a natural adjustment for the especial consummation
of which the stage affords a better ground than even the
larger sphere of a cultured public.’* Hildebrand names as
conditions: First, the necessity of being generally under-
stood; second, the frequent change and exchange of the
acting personnel; third, the influence of some of the theat-
rical centers like Hannover, Meiningen, Weimar, Berlin.
Leipsic, Dresden, Munich, etc, and lastly, some esthetic
points. He continues: “All our modern Germanists rec-
ognize the fact that the language of the tragedy, if not cor-
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY
i6
rupted by dilletanteism, is to be regarded as the standard of
pronunciation. Professor Kenvitch, of Western Prussia;
Sanders, of Mecklenburg; Schmolke, of Posen; Hugo
Hoffman, of Silesia; Tucke, of Brunswick; Lohmeyer, and
Vietor, of Hessia; Trautman, of Thuringia; Paul and
Krauter, of Alsace; Visher, of Wuertemberg — all coincide
with my opinion upon the main questions of orthoepy.
This array of authorities certainly furnishes proof of the
soundness of my assertions, especially in Germany, where
the old adage, “Viel Koepfe, viele Sinne,” is still given
assent in theatrical matters.
There may be in Germany as well as in this country
some people that will oppose the language of the stage on
account of its pronounced North German character. This
objection is sustained by a diversity of reasons. Our writ-
ten language, it is said, is neither of North German origin
and character, nor is it Low German. It is simply High
German. Were our pronunciation to partake of the North
German accent, we would be guilty of fostering hybridism.
It would indeed be ridiculous if a German of a middle or
southern State, a Swiss, or an Austrian were to attempt to
speak the idiom of Northern Germany — a thing which he
could never learn.
Much truth there mav be in the last remark. We find
*
hundreds and thousands of Germans who have come to
these United States of America, have settled and lived here
for many years, and have never been able to acquire the
pure and faultless pronunciation of the English sounds, es-
pecially the vowels. To learn this requires the continual ex-
ercise of the ear and organs of speech from earliest child-
hood. Professor Hildebrand and others had this fact in
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mind when they began the reformation of the teaching of
Modem Languages and the introduction of their new pho-
netic system in Germany.
However, the foregoing is immaterial as against the fact
that the language of the stage has adopted in its full devel-
opment the North German idiom in preference to the pro-
nunciation of the middle or southern provinces. The entire
modem development of Germany since the years 1866 and
1870 has strengthened the effect of this choice. Let, there-
fore, the Germans of the middle and southern parts of Ger-
many rest satisfied that their High German is, without dis-
pute, recognized as the written language throughout the
German empire. There is no reason for jealousy of the
vigorous North, which has combined the High German
construction with the pronunciation of the Low Lands. I
may suggest here that the the North German consonancy
is ip perfect harmony with that of the other cultured na-
tions, the French and the English standing in first line,
through the marked distinction between the sounded and
silent vocal utterances, while the consonancy of the South
German dialects occupies a somewhat isolated position.
This fact is of eminent importance for the American teacher
of German. In Germany, half the work required for the
acquisition of a pure pronunciation of French or English
is done in advance by the adoption of the North German
pronunciation of the vernacular. Here in America, the
student will learn the German language with much more
ease if it is offered to him in its North German character,
as the sounds of the latter are often identical, or very nearly
so, with those of his English, the language of his country.
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It is not true that High German, when pronounced in
North German fashion by natives of the middle or southern
provinces sounds ridiculous. Imperfect pronunciation or
imitation alone is ridiculous. To contend that it is impos-
sible for a South German to acquire the North German
pronunciation is no less absurd, as may be proved by innu-
merable examples and daily experience. And while it has
been made the object of this paper to show what ought to
be taught to young people, who comprehend more readily
and retain more tenaciously than we older folks, I am still
of the opinion that adult persons may likewise secure a pure
pronunciation of their mother tongue if they will only take
the trouble.
I will now proceed to the system of pronunciation which
seems to me the best adapted to school and stage. I quote
briefly from the tables of sounds used by the Modern
Philological Society of Germany and Professor Hilde-
brand in ther new phonetic system of languages.
• •
I Vowels.
1. a has two sounds: High and clear as in Jfbcl,
Ball, fyaben ; low and obscure ( nasal ) as in Jlnfang,
atpien, lang, franf.
2. a (the Umlaut of a) has two sounds: High and
• •
clear as in Sfpfel, ntflbcn, IDfllbcr; obscure, as in Jtyitlidj,
Munich.
3. c has three sounds : High and clear as in C«na,
mefyr, jefyren ; low and short (sometimes called the closed
sound of t) as in fchnell, IPelt, fierr; obscure as in Cn*6c,
benfen. There is also the almost silent e or the e
final, occurring especially in the infinitive endings of
the verbs, as in fcblag*en, tuafeh-en, (dpueicEveln ; but also
in other classes of words, as in anb*ers, <Scg«enb.
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4. t High and clear, as in 3>$el, lieb, Bilb ; obscure
as in ifyn, fdnrdngen, (in fen. The obscure or nasal sound
of { is not strongly marked and is therefore scarcely
recognized by some orthoepists.
5. o — has three sounds: High and clear as in
Cab, fyolen, tot; low and broad as in 2Ttor$cn, barren,
for$en ; and obscure as in obne, Sommer, BTontag.
0
6. 5 — has two sounds : High and clear as in bfren,
lAbltd), m$*gen ; obscure, as in BlAnch, BAbme. Of the
obscure or nasal sound of b the same may be said as of
that of I).
7. u — has two sounds : High and clear as in IHlItf?,
Itbtt, jtt ; low and obscure as in Itnje, urn, ttn$am.
• •
8. A — has two sounds: High and clear as in Itbel,
brAbcn, BlAbc ; obscure as in ITTAnjc, bAn$en.
1 will remark here that the obscure or nasal sounds
of certain vowels are almost identical, as those of a and
i, of o and u, of b and u.
9. ti — has three pronunciations: High and clear
as in BTtile, tilen, (ftreis ; closed as in bailen, $ei$cn,
ttreis ; obscure as in efn, Cimer.
10. at — is but another written form of the closed ei,
as in BTai, Balb; ei in seigen; ai, obscure in ci
obscure in nein.
11. fit and An have the same sound in their clear and
obscure form. We find therefore no difference in the
pronunciation of en in ftcit and of An in <$5ebAttbe; in
the obscure ett in ^retinb and the obscure Alt in BAwmc.
12. ait — has three distinct sounds ; High and clear
as in bant, Scbatifel ; closed as in Pfaw, latifen,
tEaiife ; obscure as in Battm, Scbanni.
13. t»i in fyut, pfui, and of as in Bot$enbur$ are very
rare formations of diphthongs in German.
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14 . j — is not considered or classified a vowel. I
will mention it at some later time among the con-
sonants. The sound y, taken from the Greek, is sounded
like i, except in some foreign words as in Qorf, where
it takes the sound of j as in ^Sod).
B Consonants.
15 . b, 5 , and 9, are what may be called soft sound-
ing consonants (meidjc Scfyla^lautc) opposed to t, p, t, and
f, which are of hard sound (fyartc Schlaglautc). In the
English language the three first named are always soft,
the latter three are always hard. In the German lan-
guage likewise, the p, t, and f, are always hard, but
there is a difference in the pronunciation of b ; 6, and 3,
they being soft when at the beginning of a. word, as in
b soft
contrary
to
Pein-
Kunft
Cicr-
-p hard
-f hard
t hard
but
Bein-
<$unft — 9 soft
6ir — 6 soft
mark the 5 in ;
unfc — sounded like t in bunt,
the b in fyalfc — sounded like p in
and the 3 in (Tag — sounded like f in ^raef.
The final 9 is pronounced either as a sharp df or as
a f. Both pronunciations are regarded as correct, there-
fore, (Suten Cad? or <8uten tTaf.
Preceding a vowel — chiefly in the middle of a word
b and 6 are soft (blcifccn, leifccn), while 9 changes some-
times in a soft d), or it retains its own soft 9 sound, as
in Hlorgcn or Hlor-dpii, le=9en or lc«djcn, 3<*‘9 cr or 3<* ,c *? er -
The retention of the soft 9 sound especially takes place
in solemn style of recitation, but is also to be recom-
mended in conversation.
In the ending syllable or suffix 19 (etymologically the
same as lid)) the 9 is pronounced as a soft cb, never
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like 9 or f. Therefore: artig*artid}, not artif; Kottig*
Kdmdj, not KdniF; not fleigiF, etc.
So much for the 9 sound, a consonant which is so
variously sounded, and about the pronunciation of which
there is so much difference of opinion.
16. c (c) has two pronunciations:
(a) . That of t and f combined ( tf-j) when preceding
d, e, 0, t, or y, as in £<3»cUie, Ceber, Cdlibat, Cypern,
( b ) . The hard sound of f before a, 0, au; as in Carl,
Colonie, Cautel, etc. If such words be of German origin
or fully germanized, the more correct spelling will de-
mand f, for instance in Karl, Karoffc, Kuraffier, whereby
form and pronunciation are rendered perfectly consistent.
17. f and p are sounded alike, their pronunciation
is the same in ^arbe and Pater ; ^ebc r and Potter ; ^ofylen
and Polf. In words taken from the Latin or French, p
• •
is sonnded like tp ; therefore, Penus not ^enus ; Piftor
not piftor; Pafe not ^afe. It also leans towards then’
sound when appearing in the middle of a word as in
propel not ^rc«f«el ; braper not bra«f*er. As a final sound
even in foreign words, it is always pronounced f, as in
pofitiP‘pofitif, K6jeftip=Kbjeftif, 2TTotip^TTotif ; pb has no
independent sound. Its form is peculiarly its own, and
stands for the f sound in some words borrowed from the
Greek or Hebrew languages.
18. The consonants b, j, 9, <b and f constitute an
interesting group of gradations of the same sound, b
the single and unchecked aspirate, the mere breath; j
is the softest of the palatal sounds, in fact hardly more
than an aspirate, shortened and thinned by a slight con-
traction of the palate. In sounding the 9, the palate is
closed for a short moment: di is reallv sounded like a
• •
9, modified by an emission of breath. Teachers of deaf
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mute children pronounce the cfy a breathed or prolonged
$ and teach it as such. K is. as mentioned before, a
hard palatal. The following group of words may serve
as illustrations.
f)aar, 3 a *? r ' 9 ar > (d?ar), tfarte.
That d> is an aspirate only as a middle and final sound
and is pronounced like f in the beginning of words,
is well known. Therefore, <£fytna*tf ina, <£ljerusfcr«l{erusfcr.
Yet there many exceptions to the latter rule. <£fyilc,
Cfyofola&e, etc.
19. Little need be said of the sound of 1 as its pro-
perties may be supposed to be generally known.
20. r is in the language of the North-German stage
always a rolling lingual and never a guttural ; therefore
ITCoHgcn not ITCorqen ; bauH not baar. The correct pro-
nunciation of this sound is to be well distinguished from
the English guttural r.
21. m, n, and n$ are well known nasals (or nasal
sounds); they are what may be called linguo-nasals, in-
fluencing the sound of the vowels immediately preced-
ing them, as already mentioned. The combination nf
is sounded like itgf, as in 3anf*3a«tgf; linfsdingfs.
22. q»fm.
28. The f (s) has two distinct pronunciations, which
are usually, but not invariably marked by a difference
in spelling. Exceptions are found in the following
words: las, los, Scbofc, Sdjlog, ITtufc, (ftrugc, etc.
The difference of the sound is however to be observed
in retfen, reifcen, lafen, laffcn, IPiefen, miffcn, etc. The
sharp difference between the sibilant sounds taught in
some of the phonetic systems is not recognized by the
North-German stage; the sharpening of the sound takes
place only through the quickened transition from the
vowel to the consonant.
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24. fd? represents a simple linguo-denlal, the com-
ponent parts of which are not divided in modern pro-
nunciation. Therefore, Sdjinfcn not S'finfen ; **afe
not 5*fafe. Before 4, m, n, r, and w, the sound f df is
always broad and full. Examples : fc^licfen not fdiefen;
fdpmecfen not f«mccfcn; fdfneiten not f«nciben; f«^nrimmen
not f»n)immen. To substitute the sound for fd? at the
beginning of words is North-German dialect, but is not
found in the language of the North-German stage.
The initial combinations g and ft are to be pro-
nounced not sharply as in Hannover, but broad and full
as in South-Germany. The North-German stage, even
in the city of Hannover, pronounces £<$prad?e not
S'praccbe, £d?teine not Sdcine, Sltyuttgart not S’tutt$art.
1 might call attention to numerous authorities upon the
pronunciation of these combinations, but will mention
only Grimm’s Deutfcfye (Srammatif unb Deutfd>es U)drter«
bud?, and the works already named of Sanbers, f^ilbc*
branbt, Paul and Victor. The German grammarians
held as early as the 16th century that f in the com-
bination of the double consonants g and ft were to be
sounded as f df in fctylagcn, fdjpneiben, etc. The spelling,
however, remained f and ft, probably from the follow-
ing reasons.
First — The combination of the sounds § and ft were
frequently met with at the beginning as well as in the
termination of words.
Second — They were frequently found in the Latin
language and therefore decisive for German Orthography^
Third — Too great a combination of consonants was
to be avoided. 8uch an accumulation ( like f>d?*t>r in
fdjtreiten, or f*d?«p»r in fdtprcdten were impossible after
fd?l, fdm, fd?m, fd?r, and fdm>, as these combinations are
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invariably followed l»v a vowel. Consequently, the
German grammarians retrained from writing, fcfytreiten or
fcfypredjen and retained the simpler forms of ft and fp.
Nevertheless, in sounding the words it is just as incor-
rect to say fdetgen, f«ptelen, as it is to pronounce fdagen
or f.mteren.
The final sound in the double consonants ft and £ is
always a pure sibilant. We therefore have to pronounce
i«ft and not ifdit, IPur*ft and not IDurfdjt, ^ur«ften and
not ^urfcbtcn.
25. The w is a consonant greatly differing from the
English w. The German rr> is formed by forcing voca-
lized breath through the upper teeth and lower lip,
slightly pressed together. The correct pronunciation is
therefore not Ibaffcr but JDaffer, not IFeUen but IDellen.
26. The pronunciation of r is f and f combined,
ITCar is sounded iTCa=?$. The same is true of djs, whether
this combination occur between two vowels or at the
end of a word. Therefore, pronounced ^ufs,
Sadrfen pronounced faffen.
27. Besides the sound mentioned and explained so
far, there is one more which we have borrowed from
the French. It is a very soft and sliding fcb marked in
French before certain vowels by g, or j. For instance
in jalousie, journal, logis, menagerie, page. Many of
the words in which this sound occurs, have found a place
in the German language but retained their original pro-
nunciation. I may add the following examples: (Rente,
(Rensburm, Coat*.
The other French sounds which have found their wav
A
into the German language, mostlv by misadventure,
• * % r 7
especially the French palato-nasals, retain also their
original pronunciation. It may be said of the German
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tongue, in spite of her tendency to use foreign words*
that she does not assimilate them for centuries, but
respects their foreign orthography and pronunciation.
So with the English words strike, turf and boycott , which
have been used in Germany for years, still retaining
their English form and pronunciation.
To close this paper, I will add a few remarks on some
disputed points.
1. A well known rule of pronunciation determines
that vowels followed by only one consonant are long;
if short, the following consonants must be doubled, or
else an accumulation of two or more consonants must
follow, for example.
The a in Stab or Kabo is long, followed by one b.
But in Kappc, ar$, Knaft it is short, followed bv
double p or an accumulation of consonants.
Recently however, this rule has been suspended very
frequently in regard to monosyllables. There is good
authority for pronouncing a short vowel in Bucb,
Cag, Bab, Nab, Bacb, etc., less authority for retaining
the short vowel if another syllable is added. ( Examples
instead of ; inches instead of Cliches;
Nabs instead of Kabos, etc.)
Standard exceptions to the above rule are found in
the little words, mil, cb, an, am, ron, pom, bin, bas, bes,
mas, tpcs, tt»cm, men, and cs. But in ror, 5 ur, aar, and
her, the vowels are long.
2. The correct pronunciation of the word Pina is
Piit$, not Piltgf ; the latter is the North-German dialect.
3 The so-called assimilation (perhaps more correctly
called amalgamation) of two kindred consonants mav
% w %
take place wherever no hardness for tongue or ear will
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arise, or else the meaning of the words combined be
disturbed.
Examples, t and b may be amalgamated into one
consonant, a9 in
mit bem like mit (b)cm,
mit tor like mit (b)it,
fyaft bu like fyaf(t) bu,
am ZHcer like am (2Tt)ecr.
but hardly ob*fofyl instead of ob*tnofyl.
4. The careless pronunciation of the endings or ter-
minations. especially of, en, ern and eln in verbs is not
to be tolerated, as
lieb’n or lieben for the correct lieb«en
finn’n for the correct
benf’it for the correct bertf*en
tnedtf’ln for the correct tnedrfeln
manb’m for the correct roanbem.
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Methods u)ith Beginners in French
and German.
Willis Arden* Chamberlin.
A well-known professor of German in a neighboring
State has expressed the opinion that the subject of method
is not very important, and that some teachers are so con-
cerned in regard to it as to embarrass their teaching . 1
But he modifies the statement afterward so that we see
he refers to the routine or machinery of teaching. We all
agree that the teacher is more important than any method.
A good teacher will succeed in imparting instruction even
with a poor method. If left to himself, he instinctively
chooses good methods. In this sense, therefore, the sub-
ject is not very important, because teachers may rely safely
upon their own inventive genius to supply these methods.
Yet suggestions in regard to certain kinds of work or par-
ticular features of it are oftentimes helpful, even to the best
teachers. There is scarcely one who has nothing to learn
from the experience of others. The purpose of this paper
is to offer some suggestions regarding the mode of teach-
ing during the first year of the study of French and Ger-
man. The suggestions are made with the hope of eliciting
i " Observations upon Method in the Teaching of Modern Unfuagn " -
by Prof. Calvin Thomaa.
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free discussion from teachers, and thereby gaining the
results of mature experience.
The term beginners as used here refers to the students
in our colleges and higher classes of the preparatory
schools. If the manner of teaching is important at all
stages of the study, it is especially so during the first years.
For then foundations are laid. Habits are formed which
determine the character of the work in the succeeding
years of study. The pupil, inexperienced in the subject
which he is studying, must follow more closely than in
later years the guidance of the instructor.
We need first to decide upon the main object in the
study of the Modem Languages, inasmuch as the method
pursued will be determined by the purpose in view. Shall
we teach the foreign language principally for the sake of
the mental discipline, or try to impart ability to converse
in the foreign tongue, or shall the main object be to ac-
quire ability to read easily and correctly as in the mother
tongue? Mental development is the chief aim in most of
the studies of our college courses. French and German
certainly offer rare advantages in that kind of discipline.
But instruction for that object alone would be apt to defeat
its own purpose. The study of Modem Languages has
other objects more directly practical, which may be secured
not at a loss of mental development, but together with its
highest attainment. •
Many teachers trv to teach their students to converse
in the foreign tongue. With this object in view they adopt
the Natural Method, or Professor Kroeh’s, or the Gouin
system. They say that their object is to impart a thorough
knowledge of the language, which may be most easily and
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quickly accomplished by beginning with the conversation.
Without entering into the discussion of the merits of these
methods, all of which have been very effective in the hands
of skilled teachers, we may say that the prevailing opinion
is against these systems for collegiate instruction. They
give too much time to conversation. They do not offer the
highest kind of discipline, since they require much repeti-
tion of words and phrases, a mechanical rather than reason-
ing process.
The opinion of the foremost teachers of Modern Lan-
guages in tins country is in favor of making ability to read
and understand correctly and quickly the chief aim. On
this point I quote from two recent articles, without men-
tioning others. Prof. Starr W. Cutting says : 1 “In com-
mon with most educators, I deem the power to read and to
understand a foreign author, with the rapidity and accuracy
we command in the case of one who appeals to us in our
mother tongue, as the ideal towards which all efforts at
teaching the elements of foreign languages in this country
should consciously tend.” Professor Edgren, in a recent
article, says : 2 “I hold that the cardinal aim and purpose
o i such instruction must be to impart to the learner such
capacity to read with critical accuracy and appreciation
ordinary French as may be to him a key to a broadened
culture, and to guide his first steps toward an appreciative
acquaintance with a foreign literature.”
The most of us, if not all, agree that a thorough reading
knowledge of the foreign language is the aim towards
i M 9hould the Elementary Study of Grammar be Chiefly Inductive ? *' —
by Prof. Starr W. Cutting;.
* "The High School Teachers’ Equipment in French” — by Prof. Edgren
in the School Ilcritw for February, 189ft.
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which our efforts in teaching should be directed. Such a
knowledge is useful, almost indispensable, in nearly all de-
partments of learning. It is a utilitarian end which in itself
would justify the study of Modem Languages in college.
Only by this reading knowledge can we come into direct
contact with the literature and life of another people and
gain that culture and liberality which results from contact
with others.
This knowledge requires:
1. A correct pronunciation.
2. Accurate and thorough acquaintance with the in-
flections and syntax of the language.
3. An extensive vocabulary of words and phrases in
the foreign language.
It may seem unnecessary to pronounce, if a reading
knowledge is all that is desired. We read EugJish easily
enough without uttering the words. But we do not learn
to read in that way. How much easier to understand a
sentence when it is read to us with the proper inflection
and expression, than when we see it simply in print. Often-
times the pronouncing of a German or French sentence is
the key to the proper understanding. Ideas have two sets
of symbols, the sound symbol and the written symbol. The
student who understands both of these has double the
advantage of him who knows but one. The ear, the vocal
organs, and the eye, all assist in gaining the thought, and
need to be carefully trained.
Assiduous practice is the only way to learn to pro-
nounce. The memorizing of rules is of no value, unless
practice teaches the application of them. Rules are the
guides. They are helpful, but oral instruction by the
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teacher is necessary. His pronunciation serves as a model,
and the principle of imitation should be utilized exten-
sively. The instructor should be able to help by explain-
ing the way in which sounds are produced, by indicating
the positions of the organs of speech in uttering certain
sounds, and by comparing with other languages. The
more thoroughly he is acquainted with phonetics, the bet-
ter he can help his students. He must be patient and per-
severing in correcting mistakes. Practice and correction
must go hand in hand, and for a few weeks receive special
attention. In this time the majority of the students will
have acquired a fair degree of skill in pronouncing, and
hereafter the teacher's endeavor should be to perfect this
skill in the fine distinctions of sound and lead on to greater
fluency and facility in reading- the. foreign tongue. It is
important that a good pronunciation should be acquired at
the very beginning, for mistakes persisted in for some time
are eradicated only with the greatest difficulty.
From the first day the class should begin to read and
speak easy exercises. The reading of a connected text can
begin within a few days. That gives the class more practice
in pronouncing, and brings them into immediate contact
with the language. Teach the language as a living lan-
guage. I would emphasize the importance of much oral
drill. The student learns in preparing the lesson to recog-
nize the words by sight ; that part may safely be left to him.
But the recitation should be made as far as possible an
exercise in hearing and speaking. That maintains the inter-
est and keeps the mental faculties alert, thus contributing to
a quicker acquisition of a reading acquaintance with the
language. Oral training includes usually the reading of
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some assigned portion of text. Then it is a good exercise
for the instructor to read sentences or parts of sentences
for the class to translate from sound. After this he can
vary the sentences, using the same words in different com-
binations, changing the tense of the verbs and the number
of the nouns. He can also use other words from former
lessons, thus giving a review. Another valuable oral exer-
cise, suggested by Professor Vietor , 1 is questions and
answers in the foreign language concerning the contents
of the reading lesson. Such exercises increase the warmth
of the student for the language, since they make him feel
that it is a living force for practical use, rather than a set
of puzzling symbols arranged according to perplexing
rules of syntax. All of these exercises are in line with our
main object in teaching, since they contribute very much
to a thorough knowledge and mastery of the inflections
and syntax. In the same way easy conversation exercises
are helpful and practicable. Professor John Stuart Blackie*
recommends them even in teaching the classics; all the
more in teaching living languages. Such exercises give the
best possible drill for mental development. Professor
Lamoureux,* in a paper presented several years ago before
this Association, pointed out the fact that to say in French
the simple sentence, “The rose is a flower,” requires atten-
tion to twenty-nine different points of detail. Speaking is
therefore an important exercise to quicken the mental ap-
i Victor's “ Der Sprachunterricht muss utnkehren!"
* “The Method of Teaching Languages by John Stuart Blackie in the
Contemporary Reinnc for February, 1895.
“The Value of Oral Composition in Teaching Foreign Modern Lan-
guages " — by Prof. F. G. Lamoureux.
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paratus and fasten the inflections and rules of the grammar.
Merely for the mental discipline it would be desirable.
The elements of grammar can be taught in simple
German or French, as Professor Von Jagemann advocates. 1
For the elements of German grammar, for instance, can
be taught by the use of about eighty-five grammatical
terms, the most of which are of Latin origin and are easily
understood the first time.
A profitable exercise and a direct help in gaining a
correct pronunciation is the memorizing and reciting of
selections of high literary merit. A few of the gems of
poetry, so abundant in French and German, can be made
very useful in this way to a class.
2. The method recommended for learning the gram-
matical principles is chiefly the inductive. Many of the
common forms of inflection and simple rules of syntax
can be learned in the easy exercises of reading and speak-
ing mentioned above. But along with this it seems to me
to be a saving of time to study systematically for a few
weeks the elements of grammar. The inflections can be
mastered most easily by this systematic study, strength-
ened, of course, by constant use of the different forms.
After this preparatory course in grammar, the reading can
proceed more rapidly. Irregular forms and difficult points
in syntax will receive attention, so that the rudimentary
knowledge of grammar will grow by constant use and
gradual accretions. The student should learn to investi-
gate for himself difficulties in construction. In this way
he will gradually acquire a thorough and complete knowl-
» " On the Uee of the Foreijfn Language in the Claaa room” — by Prof.
H. C. O. Von Jagemann.
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edge of the grammar. The inductive method is open to
the criticism of not giving thoroughness to the instruction.
Opposed as we are to the old method of studying the
grammar by itself, we sometimes go to the other extreme
and do not study it enough. The instructor should guarjd
against this, and will probably find it expedient oftentimes
to assign certain portions of the grammar for definite
study. That will serve to crystallize vague notions.
3. To obtain the third requisite, a liberal and accu-
rate vocabulary, extensive reading is necessary. Since
reading is the aim of our study, it stands to reason that it
should be the principal part of our course. The reading
should be accurate and thoroughly understood. It is bet-
ter to read fewer pages, but have a careful study of words,
forms, and phrases. In the language of Professor Cutting:
"A thorough mastery of the vocabulary of one short story
like Storm’s Immensee, including every word and even
idiom, is far more conducive to thoroughness and rapidity
in the student’s subsequent work, than an indifferent
knowledge of five hundred pages of prose.” The instructor
can give much assistance by pointing out the relations of
words. Those of the same stem or root can be grouped
together. The relationship of resemblance and contrast
will help in fixing words in the memory.
Sight translation, as is well known, is one of the most
valuable methods for building up a vocabulary. It may
commence at an early stage of the course, care being taken
that the selections are not too hard. Too many new words
confuse while one or two in a sentence can usually be
reasoned out from the context.
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It may be asked how much time should be devoted to
translating. That may easily encroach upon time for
other exercises, or even use it up altogether. Yet while
it remains an important feature of education that each
studv should be made a means of culture in the use of the
mother tongue, we cannot dispense with the translating.
For it offers unexcelled practice in the correct use of
English. Besides this reason, I see no other way of being
sure that the student has an accurate understanding of what
he reads. The instructor cannot tell from the reading of
the text, for most students put very little expression into
their reading, even when they understand the meaning.
Skillful questions may show whether the student has a gen-
eral understanding, but will not demonstrate that he has a
particular and accurate knowledge of each word and
phrase. Continual repetition is necessary to instill correct
impressions concerning little idiomatic points which often
determine the meaning of a sentence. To fail in the trans-
lation of dock or noetic or of a modal auxiliary, or oi a sub-
junctive, or even of a little preposition, results in incom-
plete comprehension, perhaps in misunderstanding. Thus
during most of the first year translating must be continued
and form a large part of the work. It is an exercise es-
pecially needed now when so many books are being trans-
lated into English. Very much of the work is mere dic-
tionary translation, and is open to severe criticism. A
recent editorial 1 comments very emphatically on this point,
saying, among other things: “The more translations we
get, the worse they seem to be. * * * A novel by a
i "The Neglected Art of Translation " — l'ht Dial for April 1. 189ft.
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popular foreign author is almost sure to get before our
public in a translation so wooden, so unidiomatic, so essen-
tially ignorant, as to be a mere travesty of the original.”
Now the students of our classes are to be the future trans-
lators, so that it seems worth considerable time and atten-
tion to prepare them for truthful and conscientious work.
The point that has been made that students’ translations
are awkward and unidiomatic is only a stronger evidence
of the need of this kind of drill.
Another question is whether composition should begin
in the first year. It is conceded that writing a foreign lan-
guage is the most difficult part and the last to be acquired.
Hence it should be delayed until some proficiency has been
gained in reading. It is perhaps not strictly necessary in
gaining a reading knowledge of the language. Yet it is
indispensable for the mastery of the principles and correct
knowledge of words and idioms, and so cannot be alto-
gether omitted. At first the exercises should be modeled
after the text that is being used and the student taught to
imitate graceful and idiomatic French and German. Such
exercises are provided in Grandgent’s series of Materials
for French Composition, and exercises based on Parts I.
and II. of Joynes’ German Reader. In the same way the
teacher should invent other exercises. Almost every page
of text will yield valuable results of this kind.
Dictations should be frequently given, as they train
the ear to the strange sounds, and require the strictest
attention. They may be combined with composition if the
instructor will dictate questions concerning the reading,
and require his class to compose the answers in imitation
of the text.
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Above all, the work should be made interesting to
the class. Xo one method of recitation will suffice con-
tinuously. The work must be varied, and the interest and
enthusiasm of the class maintaihed. Good teachers will
recognize the truth of these words from one of the fore-
most professors of French : 1 “A class must be always
wide-awake. If the teacher is sleepy, the pupils will snore;
if he is bright and alive, the pupils will be the same. The
teacher makes the class what it is. * * * And he must
take great care to avoid monotony — it is fatal to success.
No one exercise should last too long. Students will do
a great deal of work if it is skillfully varied for them.”
Wide-awake teachers will always find means to keep up
the interest. As far as possible they should invest the class
with the spirit of the people whose language they are study-
ing. An effective means for this end is the singing of
national airs. Classes will sing ‘‘La Marseillaise,” or “Die
Wacht am Rhein,” with hearty enthusiasm, and will then
understand more clearly the spirit which thrilled the hearts
of the French and Germans as thev marched to victory.
-Talks concerning current events in the foreign land, and
pictures of men and places will contribute largely to the
interest of the class.
In recapitulation the following points are mentioned:
The aim of Modem Language study in our colleges is to
acquire an accurate reading knowledge; to this end, there
must be facility in pronouncing, thorough knowledge of
grammatical principles, a varied and discriminating vocab-
ulary. An accurate pronunciation is gained only by prac-
t “Note* on the Teaching of French "—by Prof. F. C. de Somichnut.
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tice, with patient correction from the teacher; grammar
should be studied chiefly inductively, but also systematic-
ally; reading should begin from the first day and should
be extensive and thorough; translating is necessary during
the first year, but may be gradually decreased in amount;
sight-reading is a very valuable exercise, while dictations,
composition, and practice in hearing and speaking the for-
eign idiom, all contribute to the main purpose; interest
should be maintained, and the class room invested with the
spirit of the foreign people.
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College Rhetoric
Prof. J. V. Denney, Ohio State University
Teachers of Rhetoric have long been in search of effect-
ive class-room methods. We have had, of course, a plenty
of pedagogical generalities, and, now and then, we have
been given some useful device for meeting this or that
detail; but a systematic methodology, such as has been
worked out for the teaching of German and French is still
to be developed for the teaching of the mother tongue.
Among teachers of Rhetoric, there has been, until quite
recently, little agreement, and almost no concert of action.
One of the chief causes of our delay in reaching an ef-
fective method has been an unwillingness to accept in its
fullness the idea that Rhetoric must, in its earlier stages,
be treated mainlv as an art rather than a science. It has
w
been so much easier to compound a little psychology, logic,
and philology, and to prescribe this compound under the
name of Rhetoric, than to teach how to write, with all the
drudgery of essay-correcting that is implied. If the art
aim — power to compose with clearness, force, and grace —
were kept paramount at every stage of the study, how much
text-book work, how much dawdling with manufactured
errors, how much theoretical vaporing would disappear!
Pilfering from our neighbors in philosophy and linguistics
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being abandoned, we should still retain the three essential
things by which teachers of an art, generally, seek to edu-
cate their pupils — the study of models, practice in compos-
ing, and helpful criticism.
These three essentials prescribe for us a rational pro-
cedure in our teaching; they indicate clearly how the lim-
ited time usually allotted to Rhetoric in the college course
should be occupied. Moreover they are perfectly consist-
ent with a large freedom in the choice of individual meth-
ods. Whether the instructor prefer to follow the tradi-
tional order of description, narration, exposition, argu-
mentation; or to follow the scientific order which proceeds
from word to sentence, from sentence to paragraph, from
paragraph to essay, speech, story, and other literary forms;
or chooses at different stages of the study, or with different
pupils at the same stage, to follow now the one order and
now the other, the general method of models, practice,
and criticism, may equally be made effective in the daily
work.
That there is a choice between the first two orders has
been made clear by experience. Economy of time dictates
that repetition of the same body of instruction to the same
students in different years of their course should be avoided
if possible. Since many of the rhetorical functions utilized
in descriptive, narrative, expository, and argumentative
composition are the same, it is clearly more economical to
lay the ground-work of sentence and paragraph-structure
in general, before taking up the essay,' speech, story, and
other forms of composition.
The work of the college teacher of composition would
be simplified if students entering college were able to make
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good sentences; if they recognized when a sentence should
close, and avoided running distinct sentences together, or
the equally bad practice of setting off subordinate clauses
by themselves as independent sentences. In my opinion,
the emphasis in correcting the written work of high school
pupils might well be placed upon correct sentence-making
and the proper division of sections of their written thought
into sentences — this because the correction may, in this
matter, always appear to be made in the interest of a better
statement of the pupil’s thought, the appeal being thus ad-
dressed to the pupil’s judgment by comparison. Such criti-
cism of his work will clarify the pupil’s thought and will
promote exactness of statement and a sense of proportion.
Punctuation is in this way taught in its relation to thought-
expression and becomes something more than a matter of
rules. The sentences on which pupils are exercised should
be their own, or the personal value of the exercise as a
help to their own thought-expression will be lost.
As a help towards an appreciation of logical and orderly
presentation, much more should be made of outlining and
planning in the high schools. It is good practice for the
class occasionally to make individual outlines on a subject
of common interest, these to be compared and combined
in the class, and the combined outline in final form to be
written on the board. Each pupil may then write his
thoughts, following the common outline, or, better still, one
may be assigned one point of the outline, and another
another, the combined written work making an essay to be
read and criticised as if written by one person.
Such an outline, carefully wrought out and thought
out by the class, may also be used in a talking exercise, the
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object of which is to train the pupils in choice of words and
in readiness and naturalness of expression. Instead of
writing on the topics of the outline, the pupils may be
called on in rotation to talk from the outline, the teacher
criticising at the close, and helpfully, though sparingly,
questioning on the way. I have often wondered that this
plan has not been more often employed in history classes
and in others in which a strict recitation method seems to
be inevitable. In history the work might easily become
mere reproduction of thought; in the Rhetoric class this
could hardly happen if the subjects were carefully chosen
and correlated with the other work of the school. For in-
stance, the story-plot of the book last studied in the litera-
ture class might well be the subject of one of these exer-
cises; and the result in individual power would be much
greater than is usually sought or expected from the “criticaT
essay” of a pupil.
Our college study of Rhetoric might, then, begin with
students able to make good sentences, able to divide a
section of thought into sentences, and trained in outlining
and planning and paragraphing; and we might look for a
certain degree of readiness and of logical procedure in talk-
ing and writing, as a result of previous practice in the high
schools. Surely this is the minimum that the college could
ask; but under existing conditions, it must be confessed
that this is less than the college actually gets. The new stu-
* 0
dent is usually very weak on the practical, constructive
points named, though often very strong on purely theoret-
ical matters; and matters of criticism (such as the ability to
detect and name figures of speech).
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Assuming then that students entering college have only
a fair acquaintance with sentence-forms, and but a vague
idea of planning and outlining, and very little readiness of
expressing thought in an orderly way, the single, complete
paragraph offers to the college teacher of Rhetoric the most
advantageous starting point for his work. For, as a model
for study, it represents related sentences in close sequence,
it is of sufficient length to admit of analysis, it may embody
all of the important rhetorical functions and it is conveni-
ently short. As a means of teaching necessary rhetorical
theory, it has the additional advantage of structural unity
with a great variety of types, while its brevity makes it
easily apprehended. As a form for composition exercises,,
it has the great practical advantage of exhibiting in brief
compass all of the student's errors, it makes possible more
frequent, varied, and progressive written work, and it util-
izes current thoughts that would not be considered suitable
for expression in larger compass, thus adapting itself to
ever)' stage of the student’s mental growth . 1
It is sheer folly to set a student the task of writing
essays before he is familiarized with the ordinary means of
effective expression. The essay is too long and intricate,
and makes too many demands upon powers as yet feebly
developed. It cannot be taken in at once; but the para-
graph or miniature essay may be used to teach the use of
one tool of expression at a time, and its effective combina-
tion with other tools, after their separate use has thus been
learned. Fortunately these tools of expression are not
numerous; they can be identified by the student in model
« Paragraph Writing: Alljrn and Bacon, Boston.
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paragraphs from good writers, are easily named by him,
and by sufficient practice can be made permanently his for
use in expressing himself.
One of the most important tools of expression is com-
parison and analogy. Starting with a sentence expressing
an ordinary thought, the student having learned from a
study of models how others have used comparison in devel-
oping an idea, endeavors to apply it to his own subject-
sentence. His application of the device and the sentences of
his class-mates are read in close connection, with brief com-
ments and suggestions by the instructor. Further exer-
cises of the same kind are prescribed and continued until a
fair degree of proficiency is reached by all. It is but a step
'i from the single-sentence comparison to the two, three, or
four-sentence comparison, and to the whole paragraph con-
structed with this one tool. What at first seemed an ex-
tremely mechanical process thus proves to be a pliant liter-
ary method, capable of large extension and adapted to a
certain class of needs. Even in its first stages this work
need not be mechanical, and will not be if the idea chosen
to work upon is adapted to the mental grade of the pupil;
if it is one of his own ideas that is calling for development.
Moreover, by attempting this device generally the student
will learn by sad experience where it can be used with effect
and where not.
Practically the same plan is employed in mastering the
use of the second tool of expression — contrast and nega-
tion. As new knowledge is acquired by contrasting a
known thing or idea with one less accurately known, this
device is very valuable to the student in conveying his
thoughts. As before, the advance begins with the single-
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sentence contrast, the type of sentence to which the de-
vice gives rise is noticed; the character of the subjects to
which it may be applied is discovered; and finally in its
application to a series of sentences the fact becomes evi-
dent that here again we have a literary method and not a
mere trick.
While learning the use of the third tool of expression,
repetition of the main idea in other words, there is opportu-
nity for the student incidentally to notice and point out the
difference between fruitless repetitions which add nothing
to the thought, which merely “mark time,” and those which
give concreteness, or emphasis, or exactness. A better
plan for enlarging vocabulary and for giving variety to
expression has not come to my notice. The total resources
of the student’s vocabulary are demanded of him, and as the
sentences of the different members of the class are read in
succession, the total resources of the class come to light
and are immediately put to use in developing a combina-
tion paragraph. Again the device has reached the dignity
of a method.
And so with the other tools of expression— definition of
the main statement by restriction or enlargement of its
I
terms, selecting and presenting the particulars and details
which the main statement calls for, explaining and illus-
trating, presenting proofs, and applying and enforcing the
main idea — the apparently mechanical single-sentence de-
vice discovers at last through practice its literary possibili-
ties, and its usefulness to the student in expressing his own
ideas.
To teach the raw student what these tools are and how
to use them singly and in combination for the expression of
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his ideas, is the work of a full half year in the college course.
It can not be done without a large amount of writing and
re-writing after correction; practice must be without stint
if unity of structure, coherence, and facility of expression
are to be developed. As the tools of expression are being
mastered the paragraph-method teaches in concrete form
the general laws of composition — unity, selection, propor-
tion, sequence, and variety. All the work is done with ref-
erence to the paragraph unit. Moreover, the work may be
readily distributed so as to give opportunity for practice
in many varieties of literary form. Some of these tools of
expression are most readily applied to descriptive and nar-
rative paragraphs, others to expository and argumentative
paragraphs, others to special varieties, such as the portrait
and character sketch and the paragraph of enforcement.
Minute work, much of it, but definite in purpose, at every
step; compelling close adherence to a narrow subject, com-
pelling condensation, and necessitating the exercise of
judgment in selecting methods of presentation.
The transition is now easily made to that more exten-
9
sive and more highly articulated form of the paragraph
which is known as the essay. The pleasing functional anal-
ogy that exists between sentences in the paragraph and
paragraphs in the essay is now readily grasped. This rela-
tion also points to the fact that there is a certain type of
essay corresponding to each of the methods of paragraph
development; there is, for instance, the definitive type, a
modified form of which is the critical essay; there are also
types corresponding to the paragraphs of comparison, con-
trast, proof, enforcement, etc. But as the student has
already met these types in miniature, and has been prac-
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ticed in writing them, attention may now be withdrawn
from internal paragraph structure and the emphasis may
be placed upon the planning, outlining, and writing of
larger themes of various forms. The new* element in the
w ork of writing is the forming of transitions, introductions,
and conclusions, the application of the laws of association
to the order of topics in the outline, and the consideration
of proportion of parts.
As a decided help in this work, the student should be
set at discovering and writing out in skeleton form outlines
of standard essays, speeches, and stories, accounting for
the relative proportion of parts, and for the order of topics,
and reporting varieties of introduction, transition and con-
clusion. He may also be set at reporting the heads of ser-
mons and lectures that he listens to with the same object in
view. His own essays should practice him in the various
types of extended description, narrative, and exposition,
and should be criticised with especial reference to the mat-
ters just named. The work of the whole year might be
accuratelv stvled "Practical Rhetoric,” for the functions of
sentences and paragraphs being learned — even this by
practice — there is nothing further of theory, and much the
larger part of the year’s work consists of writing, personal
consultation, revising, and re-writing — all with a view to
clear thinking and clear expression.
In the subsequent years of the course there is a possi-
bility of correlating in part the work in Rhetoric with that
of other university departments. In most universities the
process of subdivision in Rhetoric classes has not been
carried very far. In one or two, the students in general
academic courses are taught by themselves and a special
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kind of treatment is given to students in technical courses.
This subdivision is good as far as it goes; but it should be
carried much farther. The ideal would be individual in-
struction having reference to individual needs, tastes, lines
of work, and purposes. As this is not practicable, we must
be satisfied with something less. It must be admitted that
for students in technical courses, the finer questions of lit-
erary style have little attraction. A subject like advanced
Rhetoric, in these days of specialization, will hardly be
entered upon with zest by a student of engineering unless
it can be plainly and vitally connected with his special
work.. Students in academic courses likewise differ greatly
in the attraction which they show for different lines of
rhetorical investigation and practice. One group will do
the best work in the history and development of rhetorical
theory, another in technical questions in style, another in
questions in criticism, a fourth group, perhaps with journal-
istic tendencies, will prefer special practice in newspaper
forms of writing, a fifth group will choose brief-making
and argument. Experience has shown that such partition-
ing of the work is both practicable and and highly bene-
ficial. Election among special lines of work within the
same course is perhaps as near an approach to individual
instruction as can be made. The class work adopts in part
the seminary method in the three lines first mentioned.
At the Ohio State University, Rhetoric is a required
study two hours a week during two years. In the second
year while general theme-writing is continued, a larger
theory is possible. With students in academic courses the
work proceeds along four lines. First, studies in style, the
leading principles being verified by the students in the
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works of standard authors. Here Genung*s Rhetorical
Analysis with the companion volume is found useful. This
work is taken by all during the first term. Secondly, invest-
igation of technical questions in style with written reports;
thirdly, principles of criticism with reports on assigned
topics; fourthly, the development of rhetorical theory, with
reports. Students are allowed to choose which one of the
last three lines of work they will undertake during the last
two terms, and, having chosen, are organized into three cor-
responding groups. Brief lectures are given for the pur-
pose of securing orderly procedure in the work and the
special reports are so timed as to fall in with the lectures
on each subject investigated, attention being thus directed
to one thing at a time.
The nature of the technical questions upon which re-
ports are made may be seen from the following, selected
from a long list: 1
1. Paragraph structure in Macaulay’s Essay on
Johnson.
2. Word coinage in Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus.
3. Sentential cadence in Ruskin’s Modern Painters,
ch. II.
4. Idioms of description in Pickwick Papers.
5. Dynamic stress in Morley’s Rousseau, ch. IV.
Each report is fully illustrated by quotations from the
work assigned.
t See Principle# of Style by K. N. Scott. Ke*i*tcr Publiahin* Co., Ann
Arbor, Mich.
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In the principles of criticism the aim is to furnish a
sound rhetorical basis for subsequent work in the courses
in English Literature. Some idea of the leading canons
of criticism is gained from individual reports of readings
in Stevenson, Pater, Newman, Arnold, Lewes, and others
of earlier date, and the work of professional critics is exam-
ined. Thus a student is referred, for instance, to an essay
of Carlyle’s and to Hutton’s critical essay on Carlyle and
his written report is intended to answer the following pre-
scribed questions:
1. What are the elements and qualities of Carlyle's
style which the professional critic Hutton deems it worth
while to consider?
2. What principles does he assert, assume, or appeal
to, for sustaining his judgments?
3. Verify, refute, or modify, by quotation from Car-
lyle, the points mentioned by the critic. A disputed point
will call for a thought analysis.
The development of rhetorical theory is historical in
method, and each report is presented in sections, students
working along different, though related, lines.
The work thus outlined becomes more scientific and
precise in its methods, aims, and is fairly termed “The Sci-
ence of Rhetoric.” Its object is to furnish an acquaintance
with a few of the finer qualities of sty le, points of artistic
as well as practical interest to the student who would write
well, safe standards of judgment and a basis of apprecia-
tion.
With the students in technical courses, the questions in
style are addressed to the writings of scientists like Tyndall
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and Huxley, and of professional engineers. The numerous
engineering journals furnish excellent material for stylistic
study. Instead of having work in criticism and rhetorical
theory, the technical students are introduced to magazine
work, each reporting frequently on a magazine chosen by
himself in the line of his own specialty. Memoranda are
made and kept in an orderly way in classified subjects,
practice is afforded in presenting the results of experiments
and of laboratory work, looking to preparation for thesis
writing, and articles are required, at regular intervals, on
subjects in the line of each student’s main work.
Further courses with special or professional ends in view
are provided in the subsequent years of the student’s course.
This year the following are given : Brief-making and argu-
ment, story-writing, newspaper forms and correspondence.
In these courses an opportunity is given for a large amount
of practice under close criticism, and an effort is made to
stimulate original production.
In these as in the earlier courses the idea of writing
with a purpose and an occasion in view is kept prominent
Good work can hardly be looked for among ambitious stu-
dents in advanced classes, if writing is done merely for the
sake of writing. The student can not be held to his best
when he knows that what he writes will never be heard of
again after it reaches his instructor. The college instructor
in Rhetoric may find in the college or city papers, in the col-
lege magazines, and in the literary, technical, and scientific
societies an outlet for the best work of his students.
College Rhetoric, then, will aim first to familiarize the
student with the common tools of expression as best dis-
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covered and applied in the structural unit known as the
paragraph. It will easily pass next to the essay form; it
will proceed by a study of models to the finer principles of
style and of criticism, with practice in applying each princi-
ple in detail, and finally will return in the light of this added
knowledge and developed appreciation to attempt the pro-
duction of real journeyman work. Thus connected with
reality at every step, the study can not fail to be of great
value.
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English in Ohio Colleges
Edward M. Brown.
Attention has been sharply directed within two or three
years to the teaching of English in secondary and common
schools. It was, no doubt, the interest aroused by this
criticism of the schools which led to the publication in
The Dial, a few months ago, of a series of articles set-
ting forth the aims of instruction in English and the courses
offered in the large universities of the United States, in the
stronger colleges of the Amherst type, in colleges for
women, and in some of the State universities. Of the best
advantages offered to the American student at home for the
study of English, readers of these articles, and of the com-,
nients of the press evoked by them, have a pretty clear
understanding. But large numbers of capable young men
and young women are unable to make use of these advan-
tages. They receive their training in the smaller colleges,
which carry on the work of higher education under less
favorable conditions.
It has seemed to me wortli while, therefore, to consider
what the colleges are actually doing in English,
what courses of study ought to be expected of them, and
what should be, in view of their necessary limitations, the
aim of their instruction. There are. however, more than
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three hundred of these smaller colleges empowered to con-
fer degrees. Information concerning all of them is not
easy to obtain, and the discussion of the whole subject
would require more time and space than is allotted for this
paper. I shall, therefore, base what I have to say on a con-
sideration of the Ohio colleges, which may be taken as fairly
representative of the general class. And in doing this I
shall make no invidious distinction. Though certain
of the Ohio colleges have been rapidly expanding of late
and seem destined soon to pass into a position of greater
strength and wider usefulness than is possible for the
others, the improvement in their condition is too recent to
warrant making an exception of them in this paper.
The last report of the Commissioner of Education
(1891 -’92) enumerates thirty-eight colleges and universi-
ties in Ohio, with a total of 4.053 students in the collegiate
department, and 249 in the graduate department. I have
received the published announcements of courses in
twenty-three of these colleges for the year i8g4-*95. The
remaining fifteen colleges have not responded to my re-
quest for information. Most of these have few students:
ten of them having (in 1891 -'92) less than forty students
each in the collegiate department, and seven of the ten
having an average of only thirteen students in the collegiate
department. The total number of students in these fifteen
colleges was. in 1891 -’92. only 781 in the collegiate depart-
ment and twenty-two in the graduate department. Of the
twenty-three colleges of which I have information, two
must evidently be ranked as preparatory schools, and one is
a German college. There remain, then, twenty colleges for
consideration.
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On looking over the courses in English offered by these
colleges, one is struck at once by the variety they show in
the distribution of subjects over the four years of the col-
lege course, in the time allotted to each, and in the relative
importance accorded to different branches of English. I
use the term English, as it is commonly understood among
us, to cover courses in rhetoric, English literature, and
philology, meaning by the last word, the study of the
English language, either at some particular period in its
history or in its historical development. A difficulty arises
in making a comparison of the courses offered, from
the lack of explicitness in certain of the announce-
ments as to the number of hours devoted to par-
ticular studies. It is also not clear in every case
whether all the courses announced are actually given.
Furthermore, courses overlap, so that they cannot well be
classified, i. e., a course in rhetoric may also be partly a
course in English literature, and the study of certain mas-
terpieces of literature may be combined with the prepara-
tion of themes or orations ; so, too, Chaucer may be studied
as a poet and as a writer of Middle English. In addition
to all this comes the consideration that the published an-
nouncement of courses of study gives little clue to the
nature of the work that is done in the class-room. Every-
thing depends upon the ability and leadership of the in-
structor and upon the facilities at hand. Bearing in mind,
then, all these sources of error, I have made a classification
and comparison of the twenty colleges, with reference to
rhetoric, English literature, and philology, estimating the
time given to a study in every case as the number of hours
per week of a course extending throughout the year, i. e..
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taking sixty hours as the whole amount of work done in
four years, there may be one, two, three hours or more given
to a particular subject.
First, I note that two of the colleges offer no course in
rhetoric, while several others have very brief courses. But
in regard to this it must be remembered that most of the col-
leges have preparatory departments, and in arranging their
schemes of study they relegate the study of rhetoric and
composition, either wholly or in part, to the preparatory
years. The advantage or disadvantage of this plan for the
student depends upon several considerations, which I will
not enter upon here. One college offers (apparently) fifteen
hours in rhetoric, two offer ten. The average for the whole
list is four hours, which is one-fifteenth of the number of
hours usually required for graduation and relatively not an
unfair proportion of time. But the average is considerably
raised by a few colleges. If three colleges, giving ex-
tended courses in rhetoric, be excepted from the list, the
average number of hours of the remaining seventeen is
reduced to two and three-fourths hours in a total of sixty.
English literature is given large space in the curricu-
lum of the colleges. One college offers (apparently)
twenty hours; six offer thirteen to fifteen hours; four offer
ten to eleven hours: the least amount is three and one-
third hours, and the average of all, ten and two-fifths hours.
Evidently there is no lack of appreciation of the value of
English literature as a disciplinary study. It is worth
noting that ten colleges offer courses in American litera-
ture, and in one or two cases give the subject an amount of
time quite out of proportion to its relative value. Gen-
eral courses in the history of English literature, fol-
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lowing some text-book, still maintain a place in the
scheme of study, but it is impossible to tell in all cases from
the announcements to what extent mere recitation from the
text-book has given place to lectures and discussions, with
collateral readings. The author chiefly studied is Shake-
speare. Then come Chaucer, Milton, the nineteenth cen-
tury poets in general and Browning in particular, Spenser
and the Elizabethan authors exclusive of Shakespeare. The
eighteenth century gets but little attention outside the gen-
eral courses. The English Bible is studied, not exclusively
for its literary value, of course, in eight colleges. Two col-
leges offer courses in the novel, and one has a course in
general literature, using Botta’s hand-book. Several of
the courses are so vaguely designated that they cannot be
classified.
We come now to the division which I have designated
philology. I’nder this head I include courses in “Old
English” (or Anglo-Saxon), in “Middle English.” in “His-
torical Grammar,” in the “Science of Language.” and in
the “Study of Words,” for courses thus variously denomi-
nated are found in the announcements.
As one result of my inquiry, I find that seven colleges
out of the twenty offer no courses in philology. The lar-
gest number of hours offered in the collegiate department
of any college is six and one-third, and the smallest, one
one-third. ( hie college offers four hours and. in addi-
tion to this, seven and one-half hours in the graduate de-
partment, making a total of eleven and one-half hours.
The average number of hours for all the colleges is two and
two-fifths, and for the thirteen offering such courses, exclu-
sive of graduate courses, the average is three. The
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Old English period is most studied. Nine colleges
offer courses in Anglo-Saxon, some of them more than
one, and in two colleges an elementary course in Anglo-
Saxon (or Old English) is a required study for a considera-
ble body of students. In six colleges there is at least one
course in Middle English, though the amount of time given
to it varies. A brief course in “Historical English Gram- •
mar” is announced by four colleges. Two have a general
course called “Philology,” or “Science and Philosophy of
Language,” in which some text-book like Whitney’s “Life
and Growth of Language” is used, together with Skeats’
“Etymological Dictionary.” In three colleges a course is
given called the “Study of Words,” which may mean vari-
ous things.
At the risk of wearying you, I have carried through this
necessarily tedious comparison in order that the actual
diversity of practice in the colleges might make itself more
convincingly felt. I have not attempted to present the
minor variations within the several groups of studies lead-
ing to different degrees in the same college, or to sepa-
rate required studies from “electives,” or to indicate the
\ear of the course to which a certain subject is assigned.
This would have seriously complicated the matter, without,
perhaps, making the results any more satisfactory.
It is plain that this wide deviation from a normal stand-
ard on the part of the colleges is the result of a process of
independent development, each college pursuing its own
course with reference to certain definite ends in view — as
preparation for the ministry, for medicine, for law, for
teaching, or for business — without any very careful consid-
eration of educational theories or of the relative values of
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various subjects of study, as indicated bv the experience of
other and older institutions of learning. And yet it is evi-
dent that the general tendency of the time in giving in-
creased attention to the study of English has exerted a
controlling influence upon the colleges and is gradually
bringing them into line, so that many of them already an-
nounce courses in the three divisions of the subject: rhet-
oric, literature, and philology, though the last is still weak
and undeveloped, compared with the other two.
In the present unsettled state of English studies it does
not become any one to attempt to outline a definite policy
for others to follow, and that is not my intention in this
paper. Hut an examination of existing conditions and a
frank discussion of the questions involved may perhaps
hasten the process of change and improvement which is
now going on.
How important a work the colleges are doing* has al-
ready been seen in considering the number of students en-
rolled in the colleges of Ohio in the .year 1891 -’92; and the
number now enrolled must be considerably larger than it
was then. Four thousand students in the collegiate depart-
ment of Ohio colleges is a number two and a half times as
large as the number of students in the collegiate depart-
ment of Harvard University in the same year. And we
cannot forget that these young people have a very earnest
purpose in going to college, that many of them are making
their own way or have very slender means, that they are
doing as Garfield did at Hiram. Out of such material the
best students can be made under proper conditions. We
have only to consider, then, the number and character of the
students to see how important the position of the colleges in
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Ohio really is. Their graduates recruit the ranks of the
professions in every city and large town in the State. The
training of teachers for the high schools is in their hands.
The pulpit echoes their instruction. They should, there-
fore, represent solidity of learning and a comprehensive
view of the main subjects of study.
I come now to the second main division of my subject,
namely, what ought to be expected of the teachers of
English in colleges. A symmetrical course in English in-
volves instruction in the following subjects: (a) rhetoric;
(b) the history of English literature; (c) the works of par-
ticular authors, together with the principles of literary crit-
icism; (d) the historical development of the language
viewed in relation to cognate languages. These are
intimately related parts of one whole subject; they are
interdependent and in no sense antagonistic. Acquaintance
with theoretical rhetoric is of very little aid in composition
without continual reference to the practice of the best
writers, and that student or critic of English authors pro-
ceeds but lamely who is not provided with a competent
knowledge of the state of the language at different periods,
and of the laws which govern its changes.
It is a peculiarity arising from the recent introduction
of such studies into our colleges that there are professor-
ships of English literature, and others of philology, or of
philology and rhetoric, the incumbent of one of these
chairs not being expected to have much acquaintance with
the subjects discussed by his colleague of the other chair.
Out of the hazy conception of this transition period the
opinion has sprung up among us that there is some neces-
sary antagonism between the study of language and the
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study of literature, so far as English is concerned; and
people are inclined to look askance at the philologist who
ventures into the field of literary criticism, and to question
the soundness of his views. But no such opinion, of
course, prevails concerning the study of the ancient clas-
sics, or of other modern languages.
Different as are the conditions here, we may learn
something, nevertheless, from the practice abroad, and par-
ticularly from that of Germany. In a German gymnasium
(leaving the universities out of the question) the teacher
who is permited to give lessons in the literature of his
native land has received a thorough training in philol-
ogy and literature, and has passed a severe examination
required by the State, besides (usually) having attained the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy upon the presentation of a
thesis embodying the results of original work, and upon
passing a sharp oral examination of two or three hours.
The gymnasium teacher has at his command a body of
knowledge much beyond the immediate demands of his po-
sition. Besides being well read in the German authors of
modem times, he is equally at home in Old High German
and Middle High German; he knows his Gothic, and his Old
Saxon, probably his Norse, and certainly his Anglo-Saxon;
he is no tyro in German history, nor unfamiliar with the
customs, manners, architecture, modes of dress, and habits
of thought of earlier ages. Very likely he adds to this an
acquaintance almost equally close with one or more of the
Romance languages. Furthermore, he has some special
field in which he has made original investigations, entitling
him to independent opinions, which he expresses from time
to time in scientific publications. In short, he is a scholar,
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and is consequently fitted to undertake the training of those
who are to be scholars. In the language of Dr. Paulsen
(Report of the Commissioner of Education, i89i-’92, p.
277) “What heretofore has given the German gymnasium
its character, its pride, has ever been to be a school
for the learned, and to become, in its own man-
ner and in a small compass, something similar to
what a university is, not only a school for lessons and reci-
tations, but an institution where scientific work is per-
formed, and where the students learn to work scientifically.”
And that is what an American college ought to be.
There is no question that the qualifications required of
teachers of English in colleges have been rapidly increas-
ing of late, and in some cases have reached a high standard,
yet we can hardly flatter ourselves that the ideal afforded
by the training schools of Germany is likely to. be attained
very soon among us, either by the secondary schools or by
the smaller colleges. It seems not too much to expect, how-
ever, of those who offer themselves in the future as
teachers of English in colleges, that they shall have
had such a training in each of the three divisions
of the subject, as will enable them to plan courses
of study intelligently with reference to the relative
educational value of the several subjects, to make
their students acquainted with the best in literature, and
with the best thought in literary history, criticism, and phi-
lology, as well as to teach them how to write with clearness,
force, and propriety.
In what I have just said, I have outlined in a general
way what should be the aim of instruction in colleges, and
this is the concluding matter to which I now direct your at-
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tention. There must be general agreement, I think, that
in the teaching of English, as in the teaching of other sub-
jects, the fundamental aim should be the cultivation of
scholarly habits. The student should be made a scholar
*
in English. To this end, it is not necessary that a great
variety of courses be open to him from which to choose.
The intensive study of a few subjects will produce much
sounder learning than general browsing. Therefore, the
small college, unable to afford, perhaps, more than one
professor of English need not on that account, give in-
ferior instruction or encourage superficial work. If the
instructor be of the right kind, with a preparation such as
I have indicated, he will adapt himself to the necessities of
the case and keep in mind certain essential things to strive
for.
In English composition there must be sufficient practice
under competent supervision and criticism to establish, so
far as possible, the habit of writing with clearness and with
a proper use of words. Some students, but not all, may be
expected to acquire, besides this, a forcible way of putting
things. If the college instruction has done this, it has done
much. It is too often the case, though, that in straining
after oratorical graces the student and the instructor in col-
leges overlook these homelier qualities of good writing.
This means almost certain failure to make a strong impres-
sion, and involves a recon struction of one’s ideals later on.
The higher qualities of style can not be conferred by a
course of instruction. It lies outside the province of col-
leges to undertake to turn out men of letters or poets. It
is their concern to lay the basis of scholarship. Hence,
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■courses that aim at such ends should not be found in the
college announcement.
English literature opens so attractive a field to the stu-
dent that it may easily fail to have any disciplinary value,
or any positive worth as knowledge. The production of
emotional combined with intellectual pleasure is no doubt
the main purpose of literary expression. But only the sim-
pler forms of literature, and those not far removed from our
own time, can make their full impression upon the un-
trained reader at the first perusal. Most works of this kind
need to be read again and again; every word must be pon-
dered over and clearly understood as it was intended by the
author, before their full significance and beauty as works
of art can be comprehended. They must be treated as we
have long treated the ancient classics. The very fact that
the language is our own makes careful study all the more
necessary. Familiar words are deceptive and often have a
meaning in the poets quite different from that which we
are in the habit of associating with them. Few people
understand every word of a page, of Shakespeare or Milton
as the scholar in literature understands it But the wise
0
teacher will not make the text of an author, on the other
hand, mere material for philological investigation. That
would be to lose the end in the means. The study of the
language serves an admirable purpose both as a handmaid
to literary study and as independent discipline, but it
should have special time set apart for it
Again, our literature has been largely influenced by the
literature of other countries, and particularly by the great
literatures of Greece and Rome, but this is not a sufficient
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t
reason for introducing courses in comparative literature
into colleges. Such courses, if they are to be given at all,
should be made graduate courses. The intensive study of
a few great works, then, suplemented by lectures and in-
formal talks on the periods to which they belong, and on
their relation to the thought and to the political history of
the time, together with as much collateral reading as the stu-
dent is able to do, gives promise of the best results for the
colleges.
The aim of instruction in philology should be to estab-
lish a sound knowledge of the grammar of the language
at different periods. At the same time the language should
be viewed as a whole in its general process of development
in accordance with discovered laws. The relation of its
dialects should be indicated and the position of the lan-
guage as itself a dialect — one of a group of sister languages
— should be pointed out The wise teacher will not be
satisfied to let his pupils acquire a smattering of Anglo-
Saxon for the purpose of running through a few pages of
Beowulf or of something else from the remains of the old
poetical literature. He will make the grammatical study
as careful and thorough as the study of Latin or Greek
grammar, and it will be found of equal value as a means of
training, aside from its practical value in the further study
of the English language. At the same time he will call
attention to every word that Jias survived in Modern
English and to related words in German, noting the
changes in form and meaning. In this way the student will
become scholarly in his own language and know why
school grammars of English are unsatisfactory and usually
worthless.
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I have tried to show in this paper the great diversity of
practice among the colleges in the teaching of English,
which admits of reform by a judicious arrangement of
courses; further, that a competent knowledge of philology
should be expected of the instructor as well as a thorough
acquaintance with literature and skill in composition; and,
finally, that the aim of instruction should be solidity of
learning within the limits fixed by local circumstances.
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flolvcfb Idioms if) Gcffpan.
By W. A. Cooper, Marietta College.
It is said that in acquiring a new language one gains a
new soul. If this be true, linguistic study needs no further
apology, the broadening effects of such attainments being
only too apparent. For the student to discard, for a time,
hi$ mother tongue and learn to express himself in a foreign
language he must needs, of course, put himself in the for-
eigner’s place, look at things intellectual, moral, and phys-
ical as the foreigner looks at them: make the foreigner’s
habits and customs his own in appreciative sympathy, at
least, if not in actual practice. After thus putting off one’s
old methods of thought, and learning to see things through
entirely new eyes and in a new light, the peculiar forms and
arrangements of the new language do not, as a general
thing, seem queer or ludicrous. The world does not seem
to be upside down nor things to be out of place. Those
sounds, once barbarous, now become familiar, are harmo-
nious and full of meaning. For a people of such history,
such customs, and such environments, such a speech is
as natural as anything else in the world.
Learning a foreign language in the manner just sug-
gested involves more than a few hours a week of class work
carried on for a few years. Even a great amount of outside
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reading will not accomplish the task. The written or
printed page has no more life than a photograph. It takes
a living voice to put life into the words and make a living
language of them. And yet how few people can, by read-
ing aloud make a page more intelligible than the printed
characters alone. After all, the only way to catch the real
genius of a living language is from conversation. Natural,
unstudied conversation in which the soul speaks its own
thoughts in its own words is the quintescence of language.
Master)' of the conversational style makes the acquirement
of other styles an easy task.
Conversation is made up of intellect, emotion, and
gesture. The printed page shows only the intellectual part;
the emotional and the gestures must be supplied by the
reader. Many people in reading dramas, say, catch only
the intellectual and miss the delicate emotions — the atti-
tudes of the persons speaking, indicated by the arrange-
ment of w’ords or by the small particles, are invisible to
them. The ability to read so as to make the persons speak-
ing real, acting as well as speaking individuals, is the re-
ward of thorough appreciation of the finer turns in con-
versational style.
¥
Conversation for practice, whether in the class room or
elsewhere, is a good thing. Learning of systematic vocab-
ularies is worth while. Translation has its merits. Rapid
reading without translating or using dictionaries works
wonders. But to my mind there is nothing equal to seeing
something done and hearing it described in the foreign
language or being told what one is doing. Conversation
in which one takes part, not simply for practice, but
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prompted by the natural desire to converse, is the ideal way
of becoming proficient in any language.
A foreign idiom ought, just as the mother tongue, to be
a development of one’s soul, an evolution of one’s mode of
thought. I am aware that living languages are often stud-
ied and taught as sciences. A certain amount of such study
is indispensable and very profitable — the only question
being just when and how to introduce it. It seems to me,
however, that Modem Languages ought to be taught
chiefly for the purpose of developing the faculty of expres-
sion, especially the appreciation of expression, as this is
prerequisite to the enjoyment and appreciation of litera-
ture. And so words and construction are but rudiments;
an instinct for the idiomatic is the final power to be at-
tained. Since idiomatic language is the direct product of
traditions, customs, and environments, one who would
master a language should read its older literature, es-
pecially its folk literature; should study the history of the
customs of the people speaking it; should, above all, study
the present customs from personal contact and observation.
If idioms were the same in all languages they would not
be idioms, and we would not bother ourselves about any
but our mother tongue — except for commercial or purely
philological purposes. Hut it h the foreign idiom which
we seek to master for the culture it brings with it. If Faust
could be reproduced in English, but very few English-
speaking people would read it in German. Hut take away
the German language from Faust and you have left a bird
of paradise stripped of its plumage. The conception is out
of its element in any other language. Faust, Mephisto,
Wagner, and Marguerite could not speak English. To ap-
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preciate such characters one must know the very words they
utter, not what English-speaking persons would say under
similar circumstances. The language seems to be so inti-
mately connected with the soil, the rivers, the mountains,
the houses, the streets, the people, their customs, traditions,
and character, that a translation is only to be appreciated
by one who knows the original language.
One of the chief ideals I try to keep before my pupils
is to be able to read the German and understand it just as
it is, without any translating. For I find that very few begin a
new language expecting ever to accomplish anything more
than simply learning to translate readily. To my mind
translating ought to be left off somewhere in a course ; but
just where, depends largely upon the particular class. Rea-
sons are obvious.
The psychological process in ideal translating would be:
first reading and understanding the German itself, then
turning it into English, substituting for the Geimanisms
those Anglicisms most nearly corresponding to them. This
is an exceedingly difficult exercise, but very productive of
good results.
What, on the other hand, is the psychological process
in the case of most students who never read German except
they translate?
To a great many such students — I will not say all — the
German language is a sort of cipher which they learn to
interpret, having no meaning in itself, but standing for
English. When they see the combination of letters,
“1-a-u-f-e-n," thev do not think ‘'laufen” — that combination
7 +
stands for “run.’* “ K-n-a-b-e** is another hieroglyphic,
which stands for “boy." “Der Knabe laeuft,” of itself.
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means nothing to them. It is only because they have
learned that those three groups of letters stand for “the boy
runs,” that they see anything in them. A bright pupil be-
comes so adept in interpreting these hieroglyphics that he
can reel of a translation quicker than one who may speak
both German and English fluently, without being practiced
in translating.
It seems to me, there is a strong probability of such a
pupil’s getting nothing out of the German and but little
out of his English translation. Such training has some
points in its favor as against no linguistic training at all.
But it can hardly be said to broaden one’s mind as it should.
The only way to get the real good out of a foreign language
and literature is to read the language understanding^ with-
out any thought of translation. This is peeminently true
of idioms.
Now there are certain classes of German idioms which,
by induction and the use of grammar and commentaries,
can be understood and, if practiced, mastered. Verb
idioms, pronouns, alliterations, and all such peculiarities,
are not beyond the reach of even a poor student. A knowl-
edge of the history of the manners and customs of the Ger-
mans will clear up a host of otherwise meaningless expres-
sions. After such idioms have been mastered, however,
there is still a small number of wild words to be caught and
tamed for use. One mav know what each word means and
*
appreciate its force in different constructions, if heard in
conversation, but still not have control of it for personal use.
I think I am safe in saying that just about the last expres-
sions to be thoroughly mastered are the adverb idioms —
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the
* I
“ja,” “doch,” “noch “nur,* “denn,” “da ” so,
and
’'also/’ and so on. These are the most rebellious spirits in
the language. An American is likely to learn a great many
German words and idioms and be able to speak with some
fluencv and understand ordinary conversation before the
9 m
variety and force of these adverb idioms dawn upon him.
One never hears some of them until after having learned
them — a curious application of the law that we see and
hear only what is in us.
Adverb idioms in German might be compared to cer-
tain stops on an organ — they bring out the finer shades of
the relation of speaker to hearer. To kindly, pleasing, affa-
ble manner in conversation thev are absolutely essential.
9 m
Having the power of bringing out the whole register of ap-
pealing tones, when gracefully applied they open up the
way to the good graces and sympathy of the hearer. A
sentence with unexpected harsh beginning can, if repented
of before the end, often be remedied by the timely addition
of a “ja,” or a “doch,” with the proper accent.
A sentence is composed of words and intonation.
Every language has its peculiar intonations as well as pecu-
liar words. In German the adverb idioms are sorts of
turns, mordents, or other such musical embellishments
which tone down harshness and appeal to the sympathies.
It is a question in mv mind whether the musical tones are
not more important than the words themselves in a great
many cases. The word 4 *ja,” for instance, when combined
with different tones, varies in force from supplication to
warning and even command. If my observation is correct,
the word is used chiefly so as to have a word, while the
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real meaning is furnished by the universal language of
music. This leads me to believe that a musical ear can bet-
ter catch and retain these shades of sound and tell when
they are accurately reproduced. Anyhow, it is my convic-
tion that, other things being equal, an individual with mu-
sical talent can learn to speak a foreign language with
better sentence intonation, and hence more accurateness,
than one without music in his soul.
The question naturally comes up of how to deal with
adverb idioms in class. The great trouble is that the force
of these words is something to be felt rather than analyzed
and described. I have but little faith in translation at any
time, and when it comes to these special words, I have no
faith at all. An average class, unless drilled especially on
these words, will either skip them entirely in translation
or give a dictionary translation, which is very seldom idio-
matic English, often worse than no translation at all. The
Germans in speaking English more often betray their na-
tionality in their abuse of these very adverbs than in any
other words. A friend of mine, calling upon a noted Ger-
man professor who speaks English every opportunity he
has, was asked this question: “You will spend your vacan-
cies here, yes?” The inevitable “already,” “once,” and
“yet” are remarked even by small childi^n.
I have noticed in late American editions of German
works that some editors have called attention to such words
as “doch” and “ja,” and given very happy renderings of
sentences containing them. Such notes are helpful. My
own plan is to deal with these words much as I deal with
prefixes, viz., by a general method of philologists. Taking.
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for instance, the most common verbs compounded with
“ver” and collecting a number of sentences, I .group to-
gether all sentences containing the prefix “ver” in a cer-
tain sense. After studying the original words and then
their compounds with “ver” in a half dozen or more exam-
ples, the particular meaning in question of the prefix “ver”
ought to be clear to the most of the members of the class.
So I would treat adverb idioms. By bringing together
a fund of sentences containing the various uses of each
word, the force of each ought to be grasped. I know it
involves a bit of delicate appreciation of distinctions to do
this, but it will help the pupil to see shades he never noticed
before.
The teacher who teaches by some conversational
method will not have as much difficulty with adverb idioms,
especially if the conversation at times gets out of class-
room ruts and becomes real conversation. With the growth
of an instinct for idiomatic German one finally learns these
adverb idioms by unconsciously imitating the conversation
of others. They must be learned in the German because
their force is often so disguised in a translation, appearing
as an accent, a modulation, or a word of entirely different
kind, so that it takes an expert to tell what became of them.
I have had my best success by just reading them over
and over in the German — interspersing explanations here
and there — until I could tell by the expression of the pupil’s
tace that the light had dawned upon him.
Adverb idioms are few and small, and hence often neg-
lected in class work. But if they are so essential to cour-
teous conversation, and hence are constantly recurring in
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dialogue, I trust that it has not been out of place to devote
a few moments to the consideration of them. What clings
to the German wherever he goes — unless he makes a special
study of another language — and what is so difficult for any
one else to master, must necessarily be strictly German. I
know of no words or expressions in German which are
more characterictic of the language than just the few which
have been the subject of these remarks.
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Tije Use of Etyipoiogy ii> tl>e Teacl)-
it>g of Gerix>at>.
By Charles W. Mesloh.
If we follow nature as a guide, says Cicero in his De
Senectute, we shall never go astray. This statement is
doubtless as true to-day as it was when first uttered, and
will be readily accepted by all. However, with regard to
when we are following nature there is a wide difference of
opinion. The so-called “natural” method of teaching lan-
guages is, for instance, considered quite unnatural when
employed to teach persons whose minds are more mature.
And justly so; for what is natural in the case of the child
that learns by imitation is not natural in the case of the stu-
dent who has other powers of which he can make use.
Now, if it is natural to make use of even- power we have,
if it is natural to study things genetically and in their rela-
tion to each other (and who will say that it is not?), then we
are certainly following nature when we make use of ety-
mology in the learning and teaching of languages. A
proof of its naturalness is found in the fact that the unlet-
tered people indulge in etymologizing. I note a few instan-
ces of popular etymology. The Latin arcubalista, upon
being taken into the German language, was changed into
Armbrust, as it compounded of Arm and Brust. The
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French valise was given the form velis, whence by natural
development Felleisen, as if made of skin and iron. Sint-
fluth, large flood, Noachian deluge is changed to Siind-
fluth, sinflood. The noun Sucht, disease, a derivative from
siech, sick, is often in compounds, as for instance, Hab-
sucht, referred to suchen, to seek. Such popular etymolo-
gies are by no means confined to the German language.
The English mind is just as capable of them, as the follow-
ing instances show. The French word chaussee — macad-
amized road — was given the form causeway. French
ecrevisse, from the M. H. G. krebits, whence the modern
form Krebs, was made over into crayfish, the people falling
into the same error that the learned French Academy did,
when it defined a crab as a little red fish that swims back-
wards. Numerous other in stances ^ might be given from
these and other languages. To be sure, in each of the
above mentioned instances the etymology is erroneous, but
that does not disprove its naturalness.
Natural, then, as the use of etymology is, it is not, I
think, made use of enough in the teaching of languages,
especially modem languages. My teachers of Greek and
Latin used it to good advantage. Most teachers of Ger-
man, however, as I learn from my students who have come
from Other schools, neglect it altogether, letting the student
do with it unconsciously what he may. Other teachers
leave it to the last year in the course. It is very proper to
take at that time a complete survey of the subject, but at-
tention should be given to it from the very beginning,
unless the student is too young, which is never the case
with college or high-school students.
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As I have found by experience, several advantages are
to be derived from such work. To mention first what
would perhaps appeal most to our practical American
youth, there is the ease with which, by its help, one can
acquire the vocables, these little building stones that are
so indispensable in even,' linguistic structure. Everybody
will admit that it is easier to remember the words
Sch wester. Fuss, zehn, Raum, Wetter, Kinn, when atten-
tion has been called to the relation which thev bear to their
*
English cognates and equivalents: sister, foot, ten, room,
weather, chin. Where the equivalent is not at the same
time the cognate, the latter often serves as the connecting
Jink; as, Baum, tree, can be remembered without trouble
through its cognate beam and the borrowed form boom.
Herbst, autumn, by harvest. Stube, room, by stove. Stuhl,
chair, through stool. Frequently the cognates serve as
hooks to which may be hung half a dozen or more words.
Thus to English vearn we may, and moreover, should, at-
tach gem, Begehr, begehren, Gier, gierig, Begierde,
Shank serves as this hook for Schinken, Schenkel, (ein)-
schenken, (Mund)schenk, schenken and Geschenk. How
great a help it is to be able to connect words in this way,
I never fully realized till I paid some attention to Japanese,
a language which, as far as is known, is not related .to the
Indo-European tongues. The words were all like gold,
not that they were precious, but so hard to get and so slip-
pery to hold. For only two words could I find anything
which could help to remember them; they are na, name,
and tenki, weather, which may be remembered by the Latin
no-men and tempus , which stands for * tenkvus. These, it
is needless to say, I shall never forget.
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This way of assisting the memory is far superior to the
mnemonic systems current, because there is nothing artifi-
cial about it, and, moreover, leads the student to study in
the right manner, i. e., to find out the relation between
things, which so many students utterly fail to do. Instead,
they try to remember only isolated facts by sheer force of
memory. In the beginning the students will need a little
help. In assigning a vocabulary, the 1 teacher should call
their attention to the cognates or borrowed forms (taking
care to distinguish between these, as cognates imply rela-
tionship, borrowed forms only contact). Also when some
advance has been made, attention should be called to the
nouns, verbs and adjectives formed from the same stem or
root or from each other. So, for instance, from the Ger-
manic root | bind are formed in German the nouns: der
Hinder, die Bimle. der Bund, das Bund, der Band, das
Band, die Bande, das Bundniss, das Biindel, and the ad-
jectives biindig, verbunden, verbindlich. In English it
forms only bind, band, bond. Other roots are equally pro-
lific in English; as. | stig, which occurs in German steigen,
Steg, Steige, Stegreif, and in English sty (the pig-sty as well
as the sty in the eye), stair from the old form staeger, stile,
from stigel, and stirrup from stigrap. In studying irregular
verbs it has been my practice to make students form nouns
and adjectives from these verbal stems and verify their
formations by reference to the dictionary. The larger
grammars, to be sure, devote some lessons to such work,
but the student cannot afford to wait till he gets to them
> Nora — Since the above was written there has appeared a grammar, ad-
mirable also in other respects, which relieves the teacher of this work to a
great extent. I refer to Thomas's Practical German Grammar, published by
H. Holt & Co.
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before forming this habit of study. I have the testimony
of students who found trouble in remembering words that
this work was a great help to them. It is, moreover, a most
excellent mental drill, dictionary work, while indispensa-
ble, being often merely mechanical. In my opinion a stu-
dent should not go to the dictionary before he has tried to
work out the meaning of the word in question. The very
fact that he has so tried to get the meaning, even though
failing in the attempt, will impress it on his memory when
he looks it up. When the meaning has been found from
the dictionary, he should again try to find some etymolo-
gical relation to other words. This will serve to fix it all
the more firmly.
Frequently, by the aid of etymology, words are made
to express more clearly the ideas conveyed by them. It is
this that gave rise to the popular etymologies mentioned
above. I can, perhaps, best illustrate by comparing words
whose derivation is well known with such as are not easily
analyzed. How much more vivid is the idea called forth
in the mind of a German by Bruch, at once referred to
brechen, than that called forth by fracture and fraction in the
mind of an Englishman who does not know Latin. Ange-
nehm is likewise more expressive to a German than agree-
able is to an Englishman. On the other hand, English grass-
hopper tells more about the little animal than German
Heuschrecke, unless a person knows that schrecken pri-
marily means to jump.
Where the meaning is not made clearer by etymology,
pleasure is often to be derived from seeing familiar words
in a new light. Thus the father, j pot, appears as the mas-
ter. (The derivation from y pa, to protect, is fanciful.)
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The tooth is the eater. Sooth (truth) is that which is. Un-
geziefer (vermin) is that which is not fit for an offering or
sacrifice. Fiirst, prince, is the first man. Right is that
which is straight; wrong is the twisted or crooked. Der
Heide, the heathen, is the man who dwelt out upon the
heath, whither Christianity came last.
Such etymologies as these the beginner should not be
expected to work out, unless he has at his command, and is
able to use, the necessary books of reference. The book nec-
e>sary for such work is Kluge’s Etymological Dictionary,
ot which a fifth enlarged edition is now being published by
K. Triibner, Strassburg. An English version of the fourth
edition mav be obtained of MacMillan & Co. Skeat’s Prin-
ciples of English Etymology will also be found a very
useful and interesting book. Victor Henry’s Comparative
< Grammar of German and English should also be in the
hands of every teacher who teaches German to English
students.
Attention should also be paid to etymology, because
great interest can be given to the class-room work. Stu-
dents will delight to suggest how the word for bone gave
rise to that for butler and present. They will be inter-
ested to see the English proverb: Whatever is. is right —
expressed in German and other languages bv the derivation
of the words for truth, morality, and duty, from the words
for being and custom. Thus sooth is the present participle
of the verb to be. Pflegen, to be accustomed, forms the
noun Pflicht. duty. Sitte, custom, makes the adjective
sittlich, moral. Latin mos moris. custom, forms the ad-
jective moralis, moral. Such digressions are not only in-
teresting, they are often useful as well. I note a few others.
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When the word Sklave is met with it should call forth the
story of the long and bitter warfare, not yet ended, between
the German and the Slav. Messer, knife, literally meat-
stone, carries us back to the Stone Age. Besitzen speaks
of a time when land was plenty and everybody owned that
on which he squatted. This is corroborated by the English
possess, from the Latin possedere. Such corroborations
should, of course, always be mentioned, even if the students
do not understand the language from which they are taken.
Kelter, wine-press, from the Latin calcitorium, tells us how
they trampled out the grapes with their feet. Wand, wall,
from winden, to wind, shows us how our ancestors at one
time made the walls of their houses of wicker-work. The
words Mauer, Pfeiler. Keller, Speicher, Kanimer, Ziegel,
Pfosten, tell us that the Romans taught the Germans a bet-
ter way of building houses. All the kitchen terms: Koch,
Kiiche, Schiissel, Kessel, Becken, Tisch, Essig. Senf. Pfef-
fer, Kohl, Pflanze, Rettig, and many others like these, show
the influence of the superior Roman civilization. Schreiben
tells a similar story. Strasse preaches a most impressive
sermon to our civil engineers. It would surely never have
come to be used throughout the whole of Germany, if the
Roman roads had not been so excellent. Our farmers can
learn a similar lesson from Kase and Butter. Similar to
the above a great many words can be found illustrative of
historical facts. Walter Scott has made excellent use of
them in his Ivanhoe. And bv the aid of Grimm’s law, facts
are revealed which otherwise would never have been
known. For instance, the words. Vieh, fee, pecus, paqu
Kuh, cow, bos, gaus, and others of a similar nature
running through all the languages of the Indo-European
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family, show us clearly that our ancestors carried on herd-
* 7 *
ing as means of subsistence before their separation. They
knew the horse, the dog, and the wolf. Agriculture was
not yet practiced. They had learned to count at least up to
hundred, as is shown by Sanskrit <;atam, Greek Uaro,
Latin centum, Irish caid, German hundert, and English
hundred. This law of Grimm many teachers would per-
haps not give the first year. It is of such interest, however,
and importance that I think it may well be given toward
the end of the first year, as more students would get the
benefit of it and subsequent work be aided thereby. It
should be given as stated by Professor Skeats in his above-
mentioned work, as this is so simple that even the dullest
pupil can comprehend it. It is somewhat as follows:
Write down the symbols: dh d t th; then if Latin, Greek,
and Sanskrit have any one, English will have the succeed-
ing one, and German the one after this in cognate words.
So, also, with the labial and guttural series: bh b p ph and
gh g k kh ; only here English and German usually show the
consonant. It must be remembered that the above
are symbols and do not appear in that form in all lan-
guages. The following outline shows the substitutions:
\ Greek »
( Latin f
Greek y
Latin f
( Greek *
( Latin h
th German z s
b p
g k
ph
kh
i German ( ..
f English \ 1
f German ( ,
1 English S h
While a knowledge of Greek and Latin is, of course,
very desirable in this work, it is by no means necessary,
as the student’s English has many Latin and Greek ele-
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ments which may be used; and secondly, the student will
derive pleasure and benefit from working out the cognates
in these languages.
As selbststandig, independent, and gleichgiiltig, indif-
ferent tell us, there are two ways of looking at a thing — a
positive and negative one. Doubtless some teachers would
enter objections to the arguments presented. Says one of
them: The etymological meaning is not always the true
meaning. Students will get wrong ideas from etymolo-
gizing. This they will, indeed, if the etymology is wrong:
as, for instance, when education is spoken of as a drawing
out. Just as it is impossible to draw water from a dry well,
so it is likewise impossible to draw out of a student som-
tliing that is not in him. The true etymology of this word
says, that education is nursing. Just what the nurse does
for the child, that the teacher should do for the child of lar-
ger growth — give him assimilable food and proper exercise.
It is, moreover, not the student who etymologizes that con-
tinually renders German also by the English also. The
etymologizing student has learned over and over again
that words are continually changing their meaning, and
that care must be taken not to confound the old meaning
with the new one. It is not necessary either, or advisable,
to study the etymology of every word. The teacher should
select such as are suitable to his purpose.
But I hear another objector say: It would make addi-
tional work to remember all those consonantal changes.
And I must confess that they — like all other things worth
having — do not come without effort; but the additional
labor is of such a nature that it makes subsequent tasks ten
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times lighter. A person who makes such an objection
seems to me to be like that Irishman who was engaged in
sawing wood with a very dull saw. A looker-on asked him:
“Say, Pat, why don’t you sharpen your saw?” “Sharpen
me saw?” rejoins Patrick, “Och, an’ be jabers, its enoof
work I be adoin here without sharpenin me saw.” Some
people may prefer Patrick’s way, but as for me, when study-
ing a language, give me a sharp etymological saw.
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£>as *fitoeiUf)gef)iied
Sarah A. Worcester.
The growing recognition of Richard Wagner as a pre-
eminent musical composer, and the consequent increasing
popularity of his operas, is perhaps one reason for the
newly awakened interest in the great national epic of the
Germans, “das Xibelungenlicd.’*
As a school girl, I remember, in conection with the
study of epic poetry, mv first acquaintance with this word.
How long and unpronounceable it seemed ! I little realized
then that these same words were some day to be the open
sesame to literary treasures, far more alluring than those
of Arabian fable. Later, in pursuing my German studies.
1 visited Worms — interesting in its reminiscences of
Luther and the progress of the Reformation, and in its old
cathedral, one of the most venerable in Germany.
Here in this ancient Burgundian capital, there took
place, I was told, some of the noted events recorded in
the Xibelungenlied. Hither came the valiant Sigfried. to
woo and win the beautiful, roval maiden. Chriemhilde. In
the space before the portal of the cathedral. Chriemhildf
and Brunhild strove for precedence — a quarrel which led
to the death of a hero, and the subsequent destruction of a
whole race.
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The sight of this antique pile and a visit to its interior,
inspired me with a desire to know more of the classic story,
and the lectures of German professors served to add fuel
to the flame.
Some years later I visited Munich, that rich treasury* of
9 9
art and history. The walls of the numerous rooms in the
9
royal palace are living illustrations of scenes in the master-
pieces of German literature, as well as those of ancient myth
and fable. But in the suite of apartments on the ground
floor there .were subjects which interested me far more than
those from Greek tragedy or modern lyric. These were
the frescoes by Julius Schnorr. in which the events of the
great epic of the Nibelungen seemed to pass before the
eve with panoramic force and beautv. That vou may all
• • 9 # 9
enjoy the more these grand painting's in some future visit
to the Bavarian capital, you will grant me indulgence while
I rehearse some of the leading points in the so-called “Iliad
of the Germans.”
Das Nibelungenlied — the song of the Xibelungs.
This was a race possessed of supernatural attributes,
and holding a certain wonderful treasure, called the hoard
of the Nibelungen. Sigfried the hero of the poem, has
wrested from them this treasure. He has also become pos-
sessed of a mantle, which has the property of making its
wearer invisible; and of a sword of unfailing blade. He
has also become famous by killing a wonderful dragon, and
by bathing in its blood, has made himself invulnerable,
except in one place in his shoulder, where a leaf from a
linden tree lighted.
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In the land of the Burgundians, in the old royal castle
at Worms on the Rhine lived Chriemhilde, the noble
daughter of a king.
After her father’s early death, she grew into blooming
maidenhood, the pride of her mother and her three broth-
ers, Gunther, Gemot, and Giselher.
Meanwhile Sigfried, having wandered through many
lands, has heard of the beautiful maid at Worms, and with
a large retinue, leaves his home in the Netherlands in order
to woo her.
Before King Gunther’s palace the strangers come rid-
ing, their horses and trappings finer than had ever been
seen there before.
The king and his brother hasten to receive them hospi-
tably. Joyous tournaments take place, and Chriemhilde
catches stolen glances from her window, forgetting her
work and play. But Sigfried remains at Worms a long
year before he sees the maid he has come to woo. At
length a great tournament is held in honor of a recent vie-
tory, and then at last, Chriemhilde appears in public, stand-
ing by her mother’s side and attended by lords and cham-
berlains. The hero bends courteously before her, and the
maiden thanks him for the brave help rendered her broth-
ers in the recent war. “This was done in your service,
noble lady,” was his gallant reply.
Beyond the sea, in Island, live Queen Brunhild, of
wonderful beauty, and also of wonderful strength. In con-
test with men who would woo her, she leaped and threw
the lance. Whoever was defeated was beheaded. Onlv to
a victor would she surrender herself.
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Gunther, king of the Burgundians, resolved to risk his
life for her love, and summons Sigfried to help him. The
latter consents on condition that Gunther shall give him
his sister, Chriemhilde, in marriage. This, Gunther prom-
ises to do; and the ship is prepared, furnished with gold-
colored shields and rich presents. After a sail of twelve
days, they reach Isenstein, where Brunhild rules. Sigfried
appears as Gunther’s serving man. The contests soon be-
gin, and Gunther, unable to withstand the demon power of
the maid, is helped by Sigfried, who puts on his obscuring
mantle, and stands by Gunther’s side. Brunhild is forced
to surrender. She bids her retinue approach, and pro-
claims them all subject to the victor. Brunhild is thus
married to Gunther, while Sigfried, claims the beautiful
Chriemhilde. For a time all misfortune slumbers. Sig-
fried with his young bride goes home to his royal inherit-
ance, and for ten years they enjoy their happiness in peace.
But in Brunhild’s heart anger burns. “How does
Chriemhilde dare behave so proudly towards me?” she
cries to her husband. “Is not Sigfried your vassal? Yet
for ten long years he has rendered us no service !” Gunther
yields to her entreaties and messengers are sent with an
invitation to a great festival at the old Burgundian court.
With a retinue of a thousand nobles, Sigfried and Chriem-
hilde go to Worms, bearing gifts of gold and gleaming
jewels. A splendid reception awaits the guests. The
sound of trumpets and flutes fills the great city by the
Rhine, but notwithstanding all, the air is full of boding.
The two queens sit together, as they did ten years be-
fore on their marriage day. “I have a husband who de-
serves to possess all these kingdoms,” says the happy
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Chriemhilde. That was the spark which kindled fire.
“Seest thou how he stands there — how he walks so grandly
before the heroes, like the moon before the stars!”
“To Gunther, my husband,” replies Brumhild, “belongs
precedence among all kings. When thy brother won me
as w'ife, Sigfried himself said he was Gunther’s serving-
man. And so I have considered him from that time.” The
•quarrel is renewed before the minster. Each claims prece-
dence in entering the cathedral. After stingping words,
Chriemhilde repents and strives to make reparation. But
the words have been too bitter, and Brumhild falls into
cruel desire for revenge. Sitting lonely in her room, la-
menting in weak rage, Hagen, one of the kingf’s retainers,
finds her and learns hout she has been injured. He declares
that the man must die, and summons the brothers to coun-
cil. Only the youngest considers it a woman’s contest, too
trifling to bring to death a hero like Sigfried. The others
agree to spread a false report of war. Sigfried will not
absent himself from the march, and so they plot for his
death.
The cruel Hagen goes to Chriemhilde, to take leave of
her, according to custom. She has already half forgotten
the quarrel and does not suspect treachery. “Hagen,” she
says, “to whom can I better trust my husband’s life in war
than to thee? To be sure he is invulnerable, but one spot
is unprotected.” At Hagen’s request she sews with her
own hand a silk cross over this spot — a mark for his bloody
death.
On the following day the march begins. From a cam-
paign the expedition becomes a hunt. After the chase the
heroes are thirsty. Hagen knows of a spring in the wood
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near by, and just as Sigfried stoops down to drink from the
bubbling water, Hagen throws the javelin through the
cross on his back, and the hero falls dead among the
flowers.
Then the lords place the lifeless form on a shield and
bear it to Worms on the Rhine.
It is laid before the house where Chriemhilde dwelt,
that she might see it in going to matins. In the pale torch-
light, Chriemhilde recognizes the heroic form of her hus-
band, and with a cry of terror -she sinks to the ground.
And now the colors deepen, and the remainder of the
poem is a dark tale of vengeance, blood, and woe. Chriem-
hilde, the sweet and lovely maiden, Chriemhilde, the fond,
devoted wife, becomes after her husband’s death, a fury of
revenge.
%
After thirteen years of lonclv widowhood the vassal of
0 m
Attila, king of the Huns, comes to Worms, to sue, in behalf
of his master, for the hand of the noble Chriemhilde. She
steadily refuses his suit till the thought of revenge induces
her to relent. And she at length departs with the vassal for
the land of the Huns, where her marriage is celebrated with
lavish splendor.
But Chriemhilde weeps as she thinks of the noble Sig-
fried, and the foreign land never seems to her like home.
After twice seven years, her husband, to comfort her, sends
messengers to Worms, inviting the court to a festival at his
castle. Hagen, fearing treachery, urges a refusal, but after
much hesitation, the long journey is undertaken. When
the news of their approach is brought to the castle. Chriem-
hilde and her husband hasten to the window. In the dis-
tance she recognizes the well-known escutcheons and eagle
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helmets of the Nibelungens. “He who will now win my
favor, let him think of my grief,” she cries, as the Huns
press forward to see the man who slew Sigfried.
And now follows a sickening tale of blood and slaugh-
ter; we shrink from entering into the dark details. Suffice
it to say that after horrible slaughter of Huns and Burgun-
dians, the palace is set on fire, Hagen is slain by Chriem-
hilde, and at last, she herself, furious and raging, is cut
down by old Hildebrand.
“ 1 can not tell you farther about the slaughter red;
The hosts that then were smitten, in silence all lay dead.
What afterwards befell, herein ye may not read.
Here has the song an ending, this is the Nibelungenlied.”
Urbana, Ohio, 1894.
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